Dataset Information

Visual Search Performance Does Not Relate to Autistic Traits in the General Population.

ABSTRACT: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is commonly conceived as the extreme end of a continuum. Research suggests that autistic individuals outperform typically developing controls in visual search. Thus, enhanced visual search may represent an adaptive trait associated with ASD. Here, using a large general population sample (N?=?608, aged 9-14 years), we tested if higher levels of autistic traits are associated with enhanced visual search. Visual search was evaluated using both manual responses and eye movements, and autistic traits were measured using the Social Responsiveness Scale. Contrary to our hypothesis, no significant relation between autistic traits and visual search were observed. The theoretical implications of these results are discussed.

SUBMITTER: Lopez Perez D

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6546657 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Visual Search Performance Does Not Relate to Autistic Traits in the General Population.

López Pérez David D Kennedy Daniel P DP Tomalski Przemysław P Bölte Sven S D'Onofrio Brian B Falck-Ytter Terje T

Journal of autism and developmental disorders 20190601 6

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is commonly conceived as the extreme end of a continuum. Research suggests that autistic individuals outperform typically developing controls in visual search. Thus, enhanced visual search may represent an adaptive trait associated with ASD. Here, using a large general population sample (N = 608, aged 9-14 years), we tested if higher levels of autistic traits are associated with enhanced visual search. Visual search was evaluated using both manual responses and eye ...[more]

PMID: 30778820

Similar Datasets

Project description:Facial expressions, and the ability to recognize these expressions, have evolved in humans to communicate information to one another. Face masks are equipment used in healthcare by health professionals to prevent the transmission of airborne infections. As part of the social distancing efforts related to COVID-19, wearing facial masks has been practiced globally. Such practice might influence affective information communication among humans. Previous research suggests that masks disrupt expression recognition of some emotions (e.g., fear, sadness or neutrality) and lower the confidence in their identification. To extend the previous research, in the current study we tested a larger and more diverse sample of individuals and also investigated the effect of masks on perceived intensity of expressions. Moreover, for the first time in the literature we examined these questions using individuals with autistic traits. Specifically, across three experiments using different populations (college students and general population), and the 10-item Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ-10; lower and higher scorers), we tested the effect of facial masks on facial emotion recognition of anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and neutrality. Results showed that the ability to identify all facial expressions decreased when faces were masked, a finding observed across all three studies, contradicting previous research on fear, sad, and neutral expressions. Participants were also less confident in their judgements for all emotions, supporting previous research; and participants perceived emotions as less expressive in the mask condition compared to the unmasked condition, a finding novel to the literature. An additional novel finding was that participants with higher scores on the AQ-10 were less accurate and less confident overall in facial expression recognition, as well as perceiving expressions as less intense. Our findings reveal that wearing face masks decreases facial expression recognition, confidence in expression identification, as well as the perception of intensity for all expressions, affecting high-scoring AQ-10 individuals more than low-scoring individuals.

Project description:BackgroundTraits and characteristics qualitatively similar to those seen in diagnosed autism spectrum disorder can be found to varying degrees in the general population. To measure these traits and facilitate their use in autism research, several questionnaires have been developed that provide broad measures of autistic traits [e.g. Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ), Broad Autism Phenotype Questionnaire (BAPQ)]. However, since their development, our understanding of autism has grown considerably, and it is arguable that existing measures do not provide an ideal representation of the trait dimensions currently associated with autism. Our aim was to create a new measure of autistic traits that reflects our current understanding of autism, the Comprehensive Autism Trait Inventory (CATI).MethodsIn Study 1, 107 pilot items were administered to 1119 individuals in the general population and exploratory factor analysis of responses used to create the 42-item CATI comprising six subscales: Social Interactions, Communication, Social Camouflage, Repetitive Behaviours, Cognitive Rigidity, and Sensory Sensitivity. In Study 2, the CATI was administered to 1068 new individuals and confirmatory factor analysis used to verify the factor structure. The AQ and BAPQ were administered to validate the CATI, and additional autistic participants were recruited to compare the predictive ability of the measures. In Study 3, to validate the CATI subscales, the CATI was administered to 195 new individuals along with existing valid measures qualitatively similar to each CATI subscale.ResultsThe CATI showed convergent validity at both the total-scale (r ≥ .79) and subscale level (r ≥ .68). The CATI also showed superior internal reliability for total-scale scores (α = .95) relative to the AQ (α = .90) and BAPQ (α = .94), consistently high reliability for subscales (α > .81), greater predictive ability for classifying autism (Youden's Index = .62 vs .56-.59), and demonstrated measurement invariance for sex.LimitationsAnalyses of predictive ability for classifying autism depended upon self-reported diagnosis or identification of autism. The autistic sample was not large enough to test measurement invariance of autism diagnosis.ConclusionsThe CATI is a reliable and economical new measure that provides observations across a wide range of trait dimensions associated with autism, potentially precluding the need to administer multiple measures, and to our knowledge, the CATI is also the first broad measure of autistic traits to have dedicated subscales for social camouflage and sensory sensitivity.

Project description:Lay abstract: It has been proposed that autistic-like traits in the general population lie on a continuum, with clinical Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), representing the extreme end of this distribution. The current study undertook a genome-wide association (GWA) scan of 965 young Western Australian adults to identify novel risk variants associated with autistic-like traits. No associations reached genome-wide significance; however, a review of nominally associated single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) indicated two positional candidate loci that have been previously implicated in autistic-like trait etiology. Scientific abstract: Research has proposed that autistic-like traits in the general population lie on a continuum, with clinical ASD representing the extreme end of this distribution. Inherent in this proposal is that biological mechanisms associated with clinical ASD may also underpin variation in autistic-like traits within the general population. A GWA study using 2,462,046 SNPs was undertaken for ASD in 965 individuals from the Western Australian Pregnancy Cohort (Raine) Study. No SNP associations reached genome-wide significance (p?<?5.0?×?10(-8)). However, investigations into nominal observed SNP associations (p?<?1.0?×?10(-5)) add support to two positional candidate genes previously implicated in ASD etiology, PRKCB1, and CBLN1. The rs198198 SNP (p?=?9.587?×?10(-6)), is located within an intron of the protein kinase C, beta 1 (PRKCB1) gene on chromosome 16p11. The PRKCB1 gene has been previously reported in linkage and association studies for ASD, and its mRNA expression has been shown to be significantly down regulated in ASD cases compared with controls. The rs16946931 SNP (p?=?1.78?×?10(-6)) is located in a region flanking the Cerebellin 1 (CBLN1) gene on chromosome 16q12.1. The CBLN1 gene is involved with synaptogenesis and is part of a gene family previously implicated in ASD. This GWA study is only the second to examine SNPs associated with autistic-like traits in the general population, and provides evidence to support roles for the PRKCB1 and CBLN1 genes in risk of clinical ASD.

Dataset Information

Visual Search Performance Does Not Relate to Autistic Traits in the General Population.

Publications

Visual Search Performance Does Not Relate to Autistic Traits in the General Population.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets