Levels of Self-representation and Their Sociocognitive Correlates in Late-Diagnosed Autistic Adults

R L Moseley,S Baron-Cohen,J Sui,P Smith,C H Liu,N J Gregory

doi:10.1007/s10803-021-05251-x

Abstract

The cognitive representation of oneself is central to other sociocognitive processes, including relations with others. It is reflected in faster, more accurate processing of self-relevant information, a “self-prioritisation effect” (SPE) which is inconsistent across studies in autism. Across two tasks with autistic and non-autistic participants, we explored the SPE and its relationship to autistic traits, mentalizing ability and loneliness. A SPE was intact in both groups, but together the two tasks suggested a reduced tendency of late-diagnosed autistic participants to differentiate between familiar and unfamiliar others and greater ease disengaging from the self-concept. Correlations too revealed a complex picture, which we attempt to explore and disentangle with reference to the inconsistency across self-processing studies in autism, highlighting implications for future research.

Highlights

Autism spectrum conditions (ASC) were originally described as conditions of ‘extreme aloneness’ (Kanner, 1943), and difficulties in developing and maintaining social, romantic and professional relationships blight the lives of autistic people (Causton-Theoharis et al, 2009; Deckers et al, 2017; Hendricks, 2010; Mazurek, 2014; Strunz et al, 2017)
Whilst we attempted to clarify the previously ambiguous relationship between Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET) scores and self-representation in autistic people, we examined relationships between both higher- and lower-order aspects of self-representation and a more direct measure of social difficulties, the UCLA Loneliness Scale (Russell, 1996)
Where significant relationships existed between any outcome variable and indices of the self-prioritisation effect” (SPE) or friend-prioritization effect (FPE), we examined whether these were specific to these stimuli or present across all conditions in that task

Summary

Introduction

Autism spectrum conditions (ASC) were originally described as conditions of ‘extreme aloneness’ (Kanner, 1943), and difficulties in developing and maintaining social, romantic and professional relationships blight the lives of autistic people (Causton-Theoharis et al, 2009; Deckers et al, 2017; Hendricks, 2010; Mazurek, 2014; Strunz et al, 2017). These authors note developmental delays in processes linked to having a concept of self (such as orienting to one’s name, understanding pronouns, and developing joint attention), along with enduring differences, in adulthood, in the ability to monitor and differentiate one’s own intentions, emotions and thought processes from those of another (Lombardo & Baron-Cohen, 2010) These authors suggest these differences might originate in reduced strength of distinction between self and other, a view supported by differences in structural and functional connectivity within relevant circuits (Abbott et al, 2016; Burrows et al, 2016; de Lacy et al, 2017) and by differences in brain activity during processing of self-relevant information (Lombardo et al, 2010). A role for the self in social cognition predicts relationships between reduced SPE and mentalizing difficulties, but these are likewise somewhat tenuous, present in some studies (Lombardo et al, 2007) but not in those which controlled for age, verbal IQ and diagnostic status (Henderson et al, 2009)

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion