Indistinguishable behavioural and neural correlates of perceptual self-other distinction in autistic and neurotypical adults.
Cortex
; 176: 242-259, 2024 Jul.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-38760243
ABSTRACT
Previous research has suggested that self-bias (i.e., enhanced cognitive processing of self-versus other-relevant information) may be atypical in autism spectrum conditions (ASC), perhaps due to difficulties with self-other distinction. However, empirical evidence for this is inconsistent, and the neural basis of processing differences remains unknown. We present two experiments that aimed to test perceptual self-bias and familiarity effects in ASC using a perceptual-association task. Participants were asked to distinguish face/label associations of the self from those of other people of differing levels of familiarity (i.e., friend vs stranger). Experiment 1 took an individual differences approach by testing whether behavioural self-bias is associated with the number of autistic traits in a neurotypical adult sample (N = 59). Experiment 2 took a case-control approach by testing whether behavioural self-bias and associated ERP responses differ between neurotypical (N = 27) and autistic (N = 30) adults. Across both experiments, behavioural results showed that participants experienced a self-bias (self > friend and stranger) and a familiarity effect (e.g., friend > stranger); neither effect was affected by the number of autistic traits or autism diagnosis. In Experiment 2, analysis of N1, N2, and P3 ERP components revealed a typical self-bias in both groups (self distinct from friend and stranger), and only the autistic group showed evidence of a familiarity effect (N2 more negative-going for stranger than friend). The findings are discussed in relation to self-other distinction ability, and the relevance of other neuropsychological and psychiatric conditions such as anxiety and alexithymia are also considered.
Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Autistic Disorder
/
Recognition, Psychology
Limits:
Adolescent
/
Adult
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
Language:
En
Journal:
Cortex
Year:
2024
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
United kingdom
Country of publication:
Italy