Autistic Adults are Not Impaired at Maintaining or Switching Between Counterfactual and Factual Worlds: An ERP Study / Heather J. FERGUSON in Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 52-1 (January 2022)  

Public ISBD [article]  inJournal of Autism and Developmental Disorders > 52-1 (January 2022) . - p.349-360 Titre : Autistic Adults are Not Impaired at Maintaining or Switching Between Counterfactual and Factual Worlds: An ERP Study Type de document : texte imprimé Auteurs : Heather J. FERGUSON, Auteur ; Lena WIMMER, Auteur ; Jo BLACK, Auteur ; Mahsa BARZY, Auteur ; David WILLIAMS, Auteur Article en page(s) : p.349-360 Langues : Anglais (eng) Mots-clés : Adult  Autism Spectrum Disorder  Autistic Disorder/diagnosis  Brain  Comprehension  Evoked Potentials  Humans  Reading  Autism  Counterfactuals  Event-related potentials  Language comprehension  N400 Index. décimale : PER Périodiques Résumé : We report an event-related brain potential (ERP) experiment that tests whether autistic adults are able to maintain and switch between counterfactual and factual worlds. Participants (N = 48) read scenarios that set up a factual or counterfactual scenario, then either maintained the counterfactual world or switched back to the factual world. When the context maintained the world, participants showed appropriate detection of the inconsistent critical word. In contrast, when participants had to switch from a counterfactual to factual world, they initially experienced interference from the counterfactual context, then favoured the factual interpretation of events. None of these effects were modulated by group, despite group-level impairments in Theory of Mind and cognitive flexibility among the autistic adults. These results demonstrate that autistic adults can appropriately use complex contextual cues to maintain and/or update mental representations of counterfactual and factual events. En ligne : http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10803-021-04939-4 Permalink : https://www.cra-rhone-alpes.org/cid/opac_css/index.php?lvl=notice_display&id=455 [article] Autistic Adults are Not Impaired at Maintaining or Switching Between Counterfactual and Factual Worlds: An ERP Study [texte imprimé] / Heather J. FERGUSON, Auteur ; Lena WIMMER, Auteur ; Jo BLACK, Auteur ; Mahsa BARZY, Auteur ; David WILLIAMS, Auteur . - p.349-360. Langues : Anglais (eng) in Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders > 52-1 (January 2022) . - p.349-360 Mots-clés : Adult  Autism Spectrum Disorder  Autistic Disorder/diagnosis  Brain  Comprehension  Evoked Potentials  Humans  Reading  Autism  Counterfactuals  Event-related potentials  Language comprehension  N400 Index. décimale : PER Périodiques Résumé : We report an event-related brain potential (ERP) experiment that tests whether autistic adults are able to maintain and switch between counterfactual and factual worlds. Participants (N = 48) read scenarios that set up a factual or counterfactual scenario, then either maintained the counterfactual world or switched back to the factual world. When the context maintained the world, participants showed appropriate detection of the inconsistent critical word. In contrast, when participants had to switch from a counterfactual to factual world, they initially experienced interference from the counterfactual context, then favoured the factual interpretation of events. None of these effects were modulated by group, despite group-level impairments in Theory of Mind and cognitive flexibility among the autistic adults. These results demonstrate that autistic adults can appropriately use complex contextual cues to maintain and/or update mental representations of counterfactual and factual events. En ligne : http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10803-021-04939-4 Permalink : https://www.cra-rhone-alpes.org/cid/opac_css/index.php?lvl=notice_display&id=455

Belief-attribution in adults with and without autistic spectrum disorders / Elisabeth E.F. BRADFORD in Autism Research, 11-11 (November 2018)  

Public ISBD [article]  inAutism Research > 11-11 (November 2018) . - p.1542-1553 Titre : Belief-attribution in adults with and without autistic spectrum disorders Type de document : texte imprimé Auteurs : Elisabeth E.F. BRADFORD, Auteur ; Vera HUKKER, Auteur ; Leann SMITH, Auteur ; Heather J. FERGUSON, Auteur Article en page(s) : p.1542-1553 Langues : Anglais (eng) Mots-clés : autistic spectrum disorders  belief-attribution  false-belief  perspective-taking  theory of mind Index. décimale : PER Périodiques Résumé : An important aspect of daily life is the ability to infer information about the contents of other people's minds, such as what they can see and what they know, in order to engage in successful interactions. This is referred to as possession of a "Theory of Mind" (ToM). Past research has shown that adults with Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASD) often show deficits in social communication abilities, although can successfully pass tests of explicit ToM. The current study utilized a computerized false-belief task to explore subtle differences (i.e., measuring response times and accuracy rates) in how efficiently ToM capacities-specifically, belief-attribution-are utilized in adults with and without ASD. In the task, participants were asked to attribute a belief-state to either themselves or another person, following establishment of a true or false-belief scenario. Results revealed comparable patterns of ToM engagement across individuals with and without ASD, with faster and more accurate responses to "Self" versus "Other" oriented questions, and slower response times when shifting between the "Self" and "Other" perspective compared to when maintaining a perspective. However, autistic individuals showed a particular deficit in correctly identifying a belief-state in false-belief trials, in which two contrasting belief-states had to be held in mind, suggesting more difficulty disengaging from current, reality based belief-states than neuro-typical individuals. Autism Res 2018, 11: 1542-1553. (c) 2018 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. LAY SUMMARY: To successfully communicate, we have to think about what other people do/do not know; this is called having a "Theory of Mind." This study looked at how well people use their Theory of Mind when thinking about the contents of people's minds. Results showed that people with autism had difficulties considering more than one mental state at a time, suggesting they may have more trouble in stopping themselves thinking about what is happening in reality than people without autism. En ligne : http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/aur.2032 Permalink : https://www.cra-rhone-alpes.org/cid/opac_css/index.php?lvl=notice_display&id=370 [article] Belief-attribution in adults with and without autistic spectrum disorders [texte imprimé] / Elisabeth E.F. BRADFORD, Auteur ; Vera HUKKER, Auteur ; Leann SMITH, Auteur ; Heather J. FERGUSON, Auteur . - p.1542-1553. Langues : Anglais (eng) in Autism Research > 11-11 (November 2018) . - p.1542-1553 Mots-clés : autistic spectrum disorders  belief-attribution  false-belief  perspective-taking  theory of mind Index. décimale : PER Périodiques Résumé : An important aspect of daily life is the ability to infer information about the contents of other people's minds, such as what they can see and what they know, in order to engage in successful interactions. This is referred to as possession of a "Theory of Mind" (ToM). Past research has shown that adults with Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASD) often show deficits in social communication abilities, although can successfully pass tests of explicit ToM. The current study utilized a computerized false-belief task to explore subtle differences (i.e., measuring response times and accuracy rates) in how efficiently ToM capacities-specifically, belief-attribution-are utilized in adults with and without ASD. In the task, participants were asked to attribute a belief-state to either themselves or another person, following establishment of a true or false-belief scenario. Results revealed comparable patterns of ToM engagement across individuals with and without ASD, with faster and more accurate responses to "Self" versus "Other" oriented questions, and slower response times when shifting between the "Self" and "Other" perspective compared to when maintaining a perspective. However, autistic individuals showed a particular deficit in correctly identifying a belief-state in false-belief trials, in which two contrasting belief-states had to be held in mind, suggesting more difficulty disengaging from current, reality based belief-states than neuro-typical individuals. Autism Res 2018, 11: 1542-1553. (c) 2018 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. LAY SUMMARY: To successfully communicate, we have to think about what other people do/do not know; this is called having a "Theory of Mind." This study looked at how well people use their Theory of Mind when thinking about the contents of people's minds. Results showed that people with autism had difficulties considering more than one mental state at a time, suggesting they may have more trouble in stopping themselves thinking about what is happening in reality than people without autism. En ligne : http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/aur.2032 Permalink : https://www.cra-rhone-alpes.org/cid/opac_css/index.php?lvl=notice_display&id=370

Emotional Processing of Ironic Versus Literal Criticism in Autistic and Nonautistic Adults: Evidence From Eye-Tracking / Mahsa BARZY in Autism Research, 13-4 (April 2020)  

Public ISBD [article]  inAutism Research > 13-4 (April 2020) . - p.563-578 Titre : Emotional Processing of Ironic Versus Literal Criticism in Autistic and Nonautistic Adults: Evidence From Eye-Tracking Type de document : texte imprimé Auteurs : Mahsa BARZY, Auteur ; Ruth FILIK, Auteur ; David WILLIAMS, Auteur ; Heather J. FERGUSON, Auteur Article en page(s) : p.563-578 Langues : Anglais (eng) Mots-clés : autism  emotion  eye-tracking  irony  language comprehension  perspective  sarcasm Index. décimale : PER Périodiques Résumé : Typically developing adults are able to keep track of story characters' emotional states online while reading. Filik et al. showed that initially, participants expected the victim to be more hurt by ironic comments than literal, but later considered them less hurtful; ironic comments were regarded as more amusing. We examined these processes in autistic adults, since previous research has demonstrated socio-emotional difficulties among autistic people, which may lead to problems processing irony and its related emotional processes despite an intact ability to integrate language in context. We recorded eye movements from autistic and nonautistic adults while they read narratives in which a character (the victim) was either criticized in an ironic or a literal manner by another character (the protagonist). A target sentence then either described the victim as feeling hurt/amused by the comment, or the protagonist as having intended to hurt/amused the victim by making the comment. Results from the nonautistic adults broadly replicated the key findings from Filik et al., supporting the two-stage account. Importantly, the autistic adults did not show comparable two-stage processing of ironic language; they did not differentiate between the emotional responses for victims or protagonists following ironic versus literal criticism. These findings suggest that autistic people experience a specific difficulty taking into account other peoples' communicative intentions (i.e., infer their mental state) to appropriately anticipate emotional responses to an ironic comment. We discuss how these difficulties might link to atypical socio-emotional processing in autism, and the ability to maintain successful real-life social interactions. Autism Res 2020, 13: 563-578. (c) 2020 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. LAY SUMMARY: In line with research showing that autistic people have difficulties considering others' mental states, we found autistic adults were impaired at distinguishing the emotions and intentions experienced by story characters who received sarcastic comments (e.g., "That was fantastic parking" in a context where someone's parking was particularly bad). These findings highlight the difficulties that autistic people experience taking into account other peoples' intentions during communication to appropriately anticipate their emotional responses. (c) 2020 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. En ligne : http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/aur.2272 Permalink : https://www.cra-rhone-alpes.org/cid/opac_css/index.php?lvl=notice_display&id=421 [article] Emotional Processing of Ironic Versus Literal Criticism in Autistic and Nonautistic Adults: Evidence From Eye-Tracking [texte imprimé] / Mahsa BARZY, Auteur ; Ruth FILIK, Auteur ; David WILLIAMS, Auteur ; Heather J. FERGUSON, Auteur . - p.563-578. Langues : Anglais (eng) in Autism Research > 13-4 (April 2020) . - p.563-578 Mots-clés : autism  emotion  eye-tracking  irony  language comprehension  perspective  sarcasm Index. décimale : PER Périodiques Résumé : Typically developing adults are able to keep track of story characters' emotional states online while reading. Filik et al. showed that initially, participants expected the victim to be more hurt by ironic comments than literal, but later considered them less hurtful; ironic comments were regarded as more amusing. We examined these processes in autistic adults, since previous research has demonstrated socio-emotional difficulties among autistic people, which may lead to problems processing irony and its related emotional processes despite an intact ability to integrate language in context. We recorded eye movements from autistic and nonautistic adults while they read narratives in which a character (the victim) was either criticized in an ironic or a literal manner by another character (the protagonist). A target sentence then either described the victim as feeling hurt/amused by the comment, or the protagonist as having intended to hurt/amused the victim by making the comment. Results from the nonautistic adults broadly replicated the key findings from Filik et al., supporting the two-stage account. Importantly, the autistic adults did not show comparable two-stage processing of ironic language; they did not differentiate between the emotional responses for victims or protagonists following ironic versus literal criticism. These findings suggest that autistic people experience a specific difficulty taking into account other peoples' communicative intentions (i.e., infer their mental state) to appropriately anticipate emotional responses to an ironic comment. We discuss how these difficulties might link to atypical socio-emotional processing in autism, and the ability to maintain successful real-life social interactions. Autism Res 2020, 13: 563-578. (c) 2020 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. LAY SUMMARY: In line with research showing that autistic people have difficulties considering others' mental states, we found autistic adults were impaired at distinguishing the emotions and intentions experienced by story characters who received sarcastic comments (e.g., "That was fantastic parking" in a context where someone's parking was particularly bad). These findings highlight the difficulties that autistic people experience taking into account other peoples' intentions during communication to appropriately anticipate their emotional responses. (c) 2020 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. En ligne : http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/aur.2272 Permalink : https://www.cra-rhone-alpes.org/cid/opac_css/index.php?lvl=notice_display&id=421

Intact counterfactual emotion processing in autism spectrum disorder: Evidence from eye-tracking / Jo BLACK in Autism Research, 12-3 (March 2019)  

Public ISBD [article]  inAutism Research > 12-3 (March 2019) . - p.422-444 Titre : Intact counterfactual emotion processing in autism spectrum disorder: Evidence from eye-tracking Type de document : texte imprimé Auteurs : Jo BLACK, Auteur ; Mahsa BARZY, Auteur ; David WILLIAMS, Auteur ; Heather FERGUSON, Auteur Article en page(s) : p.422-444 Langues : Anglais (eng) Mots-clés : anomaly detection  autism spectrum disorder  counterfactual emotions  eye-tracking  reading  regret  relief Index. décimale : PER Périodiques Résumé : Counterfactual emotions, such as regret and relief, require an awareness of how things could have been different. We report a preregistered experiment that examines how adults with and without ASD process counterfactual emotions in real-time, based on research showing that the developmental trajectory of counterfactual thinking may be disrupted in people with ASD. Participants were eye-tracked as they read narratives in which a character made an explicit decision then subsequently experienced either a mildly negative or positive outcome. The final sentence in each story included an explicit remark about the character's mood that was either consistent or inconsistent with the character's expected feelings of regret or relief (e.g., "... she feels happy/annoyed about her decision."). Results showed that adults with ASD are unimpaired in processing emotions based on counterfactual reasoning, and in fact showed earlier sensitivity to inconsistencies within relief contexts compared to TD participants. This finding highlights a previously unknown strength in empathy and emotion processing in adults with ASD, which may have been masked in previous research that has typically relied on explicit, response-based measures to record emotional inferences, which are likely to be susceptible to demand characteristics and response biases. Therefore, this study highlights the value of employing implicit measures that provide insights on peoples' immediate responses to emotional content without disrupting ongoing processing. Autism Res 2019, 12: 422-444 (c) 2019 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. LAY SUMMARY: Despite known difficulties with empathy and perspective-taking, we found that adults with autism are unimpaired at inferring complex emotions (regret and relief) in others. This finding extends existing evidence showing dysfunctional counterfactual thinking in children with autism. We highlight the value of using implicit measures to identify strengths and abilities in ASD that may be masked by explicit tasks that require participants to interact socially or report their own thoughts. En ligne : http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/aur.2056 Permalink : https://www.cra-rhone-alpes.org/cid/opac_css/index.php?lvl=notice_display&id=387 [article] Intact counterfactual emotion processing in autism spectrum disorder: Evidence from eye-tracking [texte imprimé] / Jo BLACK, Auteur ; Mahsa BARZY, Auteur ; David WILLIAMS, Auteur ; Heather FERGUSON, Auteur . - p.422-444. Langues : Anglais (eng) in Autism Research > 12-3 (March 2019) . - p.422-444 Mots-clés : anomaly detection  autism spectrum disorder  counterfactual emotions  eye-tracking  reading  regret  relief Index. décimale : PER Périodiques Résumé : Counterfactual emotions, such as regret and relief, require an awareness of how things could have been different. We report a preregistered experiment that examines how adults with and without ASD process counterfactual emotions in real-time, based on research showing that the developmental trajectory of counterfactual thinking may be disrupted in people with ASD. Participants were eye-tracked as they read narratives in which a character made an explicit decision then subsequently experienced either a mildly negative or positive outcome. The final sentence in each story included an explicit remark about the character's mood that was either consistent or inconsistent with the character's expected feelings of regret or relief (e.g., "... she feels happy/annoyed about her decision."). Results showed that adults with ASD are unimpaired in processing emotions based on counterfactual reasoning, and in fact showed earlier sensitivity to inconsistencies within relief contexts compared to TD participants. This finding highlights a previously unknown strength in empathy and emotion processing in adults with ASD, which may have been masked in previous research that has typically relied on explicit, response-based measures to record emotional inferences, which are likely to be susceptible to demand characteristics and response biases. Therefore, this study highlights the value of employing implicit measures that provide insights on peoples' immediate responses to emotional content without disrupting ongoing processing. Autism Res 2019, 12: 422-444 (c) 2019 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. LAY SUMMARY: Despite known difficulties with empathy and perspective-taking, we found that adults with autism are unimpaired at inferring complex emotions (regret and relief) in others. This finding extends existing evidence showing dysfunctional counterfactual thinking in children with autism. We highlight the value of using implicit measures to identify strengths and abilities in ASD that may be masked by explicit tasks that require participants to interact socially or report their own thoughts. En ligne : http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/aur.2056 Permalink : https://www.cra-rhone-alpes.org/cid/opac_css/index.php?lvl=notice_display&id=387

Perspective influences eye movements during real-life conversation: Mentalising about self versus others in autism / Mahsa BARZY in Autism, 24-8 (November 2020)  

Public ISBD [article]  inAutism > 24-8 (November 2020) . - p.2153-2165 Titre : Perspective influences eye movements during real-life conversation: Mentalising about self versus others in autism Type de document : texte imprimé Auteurs : Mahsa BARZY, Auteur ; Heather J. FERGUSON, Auteur ; David M. WILLIAMS, Auteur Article en page(s) : p.2153-2165 Langues : Anglais (eng) Mots-clés : *Autism  *eye-tracking  *perspective taking  *real-life social interactions  *topic of conversation  of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this  article. Index. décimale : PER Périodiques Résumé : Previous lab-based studies suggest that autistic individuals are less attentive to social aspects of their environment. In our study, we recorded the eye movements of autistic and typically developing adults while they engaged in a real-life social interaction with a partner. Results showed that autistic adults were less likely than typically developing adults to look at the experimenter's face, and instead were more likely to look at the background. Moreover, the perspective that was adopted in the conversation (talking about self versus others) modulated the patterns of eye movements in autistic and non-autistic adults. Overall, people spent less time looking at their conversation partner's eyes and face and more time looking at the background, when talking about an unfamiliar other compared to when talking about themselves. This pattern was magnified among autistic adults. We conclude that allocating attention to social information during conversation is cognitively effortful, but this can be mitigated when talking about a topic that is familiar to them. En ligne : http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1362361320936820 Permalink : https://www.cra-rhone-alpes.org/cid/opac_css/index.php?lvl=notice_display&id=431 [article] Perspective influences eye movements during real-life conversation: Mentalising about self versus others in autism [texte imprimé] / Mahsa BARZY, Auteur ; Heather J. FERGUSON, Auteur ; David M. WILLIAMS, Auteur . - p.2153-2165. Langues : Anglais (eng) in Autism > 24-8 (November 2020) . - p.2153-2165 Mots-clés : *Autism  *eye-tracking  *perspective taking  *real-life social interactions  *topic of conversation  of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this  article. Index. décimale : PER Périodiques Résumé : Previous lab-based studies suggest that autistic individuals are less attentive to social aspects of their environment. In our study, we recorded the eye movements of autistic and typically developing adults while they engaged in a real-life social interaction with a partner. Results showed that autistic adults were less likely than typically developing adults to look at the experimenter's face, and instead were more likely to look at the background. Moreover, the perspective that was adopted in the conversation (talking about self versus others) modulated the patterns of eye movements in autistic and non-autistic adults. Overall, people spent less time looking at their conversation partner's eyes and face and more time looking at the background, when talking about an unfamiliar other compared to when talking about themselves. This pattern was magnified among autistic adults. We conclude that allocating attention to social information during conversation is cognitively effortful, but this can be mitigated when talking about a topic that is familiar to them. En ligne : http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1362361320936820 Permalink : https://www.cra-rhone-alpes.org/cid/opac_css/index.php?lvl=notice_display&id=431

Scene construction ability in neurotypical and autistic adults / Lindsey CAMERON ; Heather J. FERGUSON in Autism, 28-8 (August 2024)  

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Using a Personal Digital Assistant to Improve the Recording of Homework Assignments by an Adolescent With Asperger Syndrome / Brenda SMITH MYLES in Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities, 22-2 (Summer 2007)  

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