Autism Spectrum Disorder Participants Research Articles

Relationship between reasoning, autistic and alexithymic traits in moral judgments

The present research investigated whether individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) present with specificities of moral reasoning. Some previous exploratory studies have assessed the differences in moral judgment between ASD and control participants, but results were mixed. The present study aimed to quantify such differences using a larger sample and a standard moral task built upon the new CNI (Consequences, Norms and Generalized Inaction) model of moral judgment that resolves multiple confounds in the measurement of moral judgments. A total of 148 adults with ASD and 151 controls completed 24 sacrificial dilemmas from the CNI battery, the Toronto Alexithymia Scale and the Cognitive Reflection Task. We did not find any differences in moral judgments between ASD and control participants, and this pattern was consistent for all the CNI parameters. Equivalence tests revealed that it can be safely excluded that our study missed medium to large differences in moral judgments between ASD and control participants when assessed using sacrificial dilemmas. Additional data quality checks allow to rule out the possibility that the small differences in moral judgments between the groups are due to poor data quality. The implications of these findings and directions for future research are discussed.

Specific EEG resting state biomarkers in FXS and ASD

BackgroundFragile X syndrome (FXS) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are neurodevelopmental conditions that often have a substantial impact on daily functioning and quality of life. FXS is the most common cause of inherited intellectual disability (ID) and the most common monogenetic cause of ASD. Previous literature has shown that electrophysiological activity measured by electroencephalogram (EEG) during resting state is perturbated in FXS and ASD. However, whether electrophysiological profiles of participants with FXS and ASD are similar remains unclear. The aim of this study was to compare EEG alterations found in these two clinical populations presenting varying degrees of cognitive and behavioral impairments.MethodsResting state EEG signal complexity, alpha peak frequency (APF) and power spectral density (PSD) were compared between 47 participants with FXS (aged between 5–20), 49 participants with ASD (aged between 6–17), and 52 neurotypical (NT) controls with a similar age distribution using MANCOVAs with age as covariate when appropriate. MANCOVAs controlling for age, when appropriate, and nonverbal intelligence quotient (NVIQ) score were subsequently performed to determine the impact of cognitive functioning on EEG alterations.ResultsOur results showed that FXS participants manifested decreased signal complexity and APF compared to ASD participants and NT controls, as well as altered power in the theta, alpha and low gamma frequency bands. ASD participants showed exaggerated beta power compared to FXS participants and NT controls, as well as enhanced low and high gamma power compared to NT controls. However, ASD participants did not manifest altered signal complexity or APF. Furthermore, when controlling for NVIQ, results of decreased complexity in higher scales and lower APF in FXS participants compared to NT controls and ASD participants were not replicated.ConclusionsThese findings suggest that signal complexity and APF might reflect cognitive functioning, while altered power in the low gamma frequency band might be associated with neurodevelopmental conditions, particularly FXS and ASD.

Transitive inference in a clinical childhood sample with a focus on autism spectrum disorder.

Transitive inference (TI) has a long history in the study of human development. There have, however, few pediatric studies that report clinical diagnoses have tested trial-and-error TI learning, in which participants infer item relations, rather than evaluate them explicitly from verbal descriptions. Children aged 8-10 underwent a battery of clinical assessments and received a range of diagnoses, potentially including autism spectrum disorder (ASD), attention-deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD), anxiety disorders (AD), specific learning disorders (SLD), and/or communication disorders (CD). Participants also performed a trial-and-error learning task that tested for TI. Response accuracy and reaction time were assessed using a statistical model that controlled for diagnostic comorbidity at the group level. Participants in all diagnostic categories showed evidence of TI. However, a model comparison analysis suggested that those diagnosed with ASD succeeded in a qualitatively different way, responding more slowly to each choice and improving faster across trials than their non-ASD counterparts. Additionally, TI performance was not associated with IQ. Overall, our data suggest that superficially similar performance levels between ASD and non-ASD participants may have resulted from a difference in the speed-accuracy tradeoff made by each group. Our work provides a preliminary profile of the impact of various clinical diagnoses on TI performance in young children. Of these, an ASD diagnosis resulted in the largest difference in task strategy.

Relationships between tryptophan-related gut metabolites, brain activity, and autism symptomatology.

Gut microbial metabolites have been theorized to play a causative role in the pathophysiology of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This hypothesis is based on results from mechanistic preclinical studies and several correlational studies showing differences in gut microbial composition between ASD subjects and neurotypical (NT) controls. However, alterations in how the human brain interacts with the gut microbiome in ASD have not been examined. In this cross-sectional, case-control observational study, fecal metabolomics, task-based functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and behavioral assessments were obtained from 43 ASD and 41 NT children aged 8-17. The fMRI tasks were based on socio-emotional and sensory paradigms that commonly show strong evoked brain differences in ASD participants. General linear models and mediational modeling were applied to examine the links between tryptophan metabolism and evoked brain activity and behavior. Results indicated that fecal levels of specific tryptophan-related metabolites were associated with: 1) brain activity atypicalities in regions previously implicated in ASD (i.e., insula and cingulate); and 2) ASD severity and symptomatology (i.e., ADOS scores, disgust propensity, and sensory sensitivities). Importantly, activity in the mid-insula and mid-cingulate significantly mediated relationships between the microbial tryptophan metabolites, indolelactate and tryptophan betaine, and ASD severity and disgust sensitivity. To our knowledge, this is the first study to elucidate how interactions between gut metabolites and brain activity may impact autism symptomatology, particularly in functional brain pathways associated with vagal and interoceptive/emotion processing.

Temporal resolution relates to sensory hyperreactivity independently of stimulus detection sensitivity in individuals with autism spectrum disorder.

Researchers have been focusing on perceptual characteristics of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in terms of sensory hyperreactivity. Previously, we demonstrated that temporal resolution, which is the accuracy to differentiate the order of two successive vibrotactile stimuli, is associated with the severity of sensory hyperreactivity. We currently examined whether an increase in the perceptual intensity of a tactile stimulus, despite its short duration, is derived from high temporal resolution and high frequency of sensory temporal summation. Twenty ASD and 22 typically developing (TD) participants conducted two psychophysical experimental tasks to evaluate detectable duration of vibrotactile stimulus with same amplitude and to evaluate temporal resolution. The sensory hyperreactivity was estimated using self-reported questionnaire. There was no relationship between the temporal resolution and the duration of detectable stimuli in both groups. However, the ASD group showed severe sensory hyperreactivity in daily life than TD group, and the ASD participants with severe sensory hyperreactivity tended to have high temporal resolution, not high sensitivity of detectable duration. Contrary to the hypothesis, there might be different processing between temporal resolution and sensitivity for stimulus detection. We suggested that the atypical temporal processing would affect to sensory reactivity in ASD.

Phenotypical divergence between self-reported and clinically ascertained autism.

While allowing for rapid recruitment of large samples, online psychiatric and neurodevelopmental research relies heavily on participants' self-report of neuropsychiatric symptoms, foregoing the rigorous clinical characterization of laboratory settings. Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) research is one example where the clinical validity of such an approach remains elusive. Here, we compared participants characterized online via self-reports against in-person participants evaluated by clinicians. Despite having comparable self-reported autism symptoms, the online high-trait group reported significantly more social anxiety and avoidant behavior than in-person ASD subjects. Within the in-person sample, there was no relationship between self-rated and clinician-rated autism symptoms, suggesting these approaches may capture different aspects of ASD. The online high-trait and in-person ASD participants also differed in their behavior in well-validated social decision-making tasks: the in-person group perceived having less social control and acted less affiliative towards virtual characters. Our study aimed to draw comparisons at three levels: methodological platform (online versus in-person), symptom measurement (self- versus clinician-report), and social behavior. We identified a lack of agreement between self- and clinician-rated measures of symptoms and divergent social tendencies in groups ascertained by each method, highlighting the need for differentiation between in-person versus online samples in autism research.

The relationship between gamma-band neural oscillations and language skills in youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder and their first-degree relatives

BackgroundMost children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have co-occurring language impairments and some of these autism-specific language difficulties are also present in their non-autistic first-degree relatives. One of the possible neural mechanisms associated with variability in language functioning is alterations in cortical gamma-band oscillations, hypothesized to be related to neural excitation and inhibition balance.MethodsWe used a high-density 128-channel electroencephalography (EEG) to register brain response to speech stimuli in a large sex-balanced sample of participants: 125 youth with ASD, 121 typically developing (TD) youth, and 40 unaffected siblings (US) of youth with ASD. Language skills were assessed with Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals.ResultsFirst, during speech processing, we identified significantly elevated gamma power in ASD participants compared to TD controls. Second, across all youth, higher gamma power was associated with lower language skills. Finally, the US group demonstrated an intermediate profile in both language and gamma power, with nonverbal IQ mediating the relationship between gamma power and language skills.LimitationsWe only focused on one of the possible neural contributors to variability in language functioning. Also, the US group consisted of a smaller number of participants in comparison to the ASD or TD groups. Finally, due to the timing issue in EEG system we have provided only non-phase-locked analysis.ConclusionsAutistic youth showed elevated gamma power, suggesting higher excitation in the brain in response to speech stimuli and elevated gamma power was related to lower language skills. The US group showed an intermediate pattern of gamma activity, suggesting that the broader autism phenotype extends to neural profiles.

Autonomic and hedonic response to affective touch in autism spectrum disorder.

Interpersonal touch plays a crucial role in shaping relationships and encouraging social connections. Failure in processing tactile input or abnormal tactile sensitivity may hamper social behaviors and have severe consequences in individuals' relational lives. Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is characterized by both sensory disruptions and social impairments, making affective touch an ideal meeting point for understanding these features in ASD individuals. By integrating behavioral and physiological measures, we investigated the effects of affective touch on adult individuals with ASD from both an implicit and explicit perspective. Specifically, at an implicit level, we investigated whether and how receiving an affective touch influenced participants' skin conductance tonic and phasic components. At the explicit level, we delved into the affective and unpleasant features of affective touch. Overall, we observed lower skin conductance level in ASD compared to TD subjects. Interestingly, the typically developing (TD) group showed an increased autonomic response for affective touch compared to a control touch, while ASD subjects' autonomic response did not differ between the two conditions. Furthermore, ASD participants provided higher ratings for both the affective and unpleasant components of the touch, compared to TD subjects. Our results reveal a noteworthy discrepancy in ASD population between the subjective experience, characterized by amplified hedonic but also unpleasant responses, and the physiological response, marked by a lack of autonomic activation related to affective touch. This insightful dissociation seems crucial for a deeper understanding of the distinctive challenges characterizing people with ASD and may have implications for diagnosis and therapeutic approaches.

Conduction velocity, G-ratio, and extracellular water as microstructural characteristics of autism spectrum disorder.

The neuronal differences contributing to the etiology of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are still not well defined. Previous studies have suggested that myelin and axons are disrupted during development in ASD. By combining structural and diffusion MRI techniques, myelin and axons can be assessed using extracellular water, aggregate g-ratio, and a new approach to calculating axonal conduction velocity termed aggregate conduction velocity, which is related to the capacity of the axon to carry information. In this study, several innovative cellular microstructural methods, as measured from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), are combined to characterize differences between ASD and typically developing adolescent participants in a large cohort. We first examine the relationship between each metric, including microstructural measurements of axonal and intracellular diffusion and the T1w/T2w ratio. We then demonstrate the sensitivity of these metrics by characterizing differences between ASD and neurotypical participants, finding widespread increases in extracellular water in the cortex and decreases in aggregate g-ratio and aggregate conduction velocity throughout the cortex, subcortex, and white matter skeleton. We finally provide evidence that these microstructural differences are associated with higher scores on the Social Communication Questionnaire (SCQ) a commonly used diagnostic tool to assess ASD. This study is the first to reveal that ASD involves MRI-measurable in vivo differences of myelin and axonal development with implications for neuronal and behavioral function. We also introduce a novel formulation for calculating aggregate conduction velocity, that is highly sensitive to these changes. We conclude that ASD may be characterized by otherwise intact structural connectivity but that functional connectivity may be attenuated by network properties affecting neural transmission speed. This effect may explain the putative reliance on local connectivity in contrast to more distal connectivity observed in ASD.

Sensory phenomena in children with Tourette syndrome or autism spectrum disorder.

Tourette syndrome (TS) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are two neurodevelopmental disorders with an onset before the age of 18 years. TS patients frequently reported atypical sensory phenomena (SP). Sensory processing abnormalities are also particularly frequent in ASD individuals. Considering the higher rate of atypical sensory behaviours in both neurodevelopmental disorders, in the present study we analysed sensory experiences in patients with ASD and in patients with TS. We enrolled patients with a primary diagnosis of TS or ASD. All participants were assessed for primary diagnosis and associated comorbidities. The presence of sensory behaviours was investigated using the University of Sao Paulo's Sensory Phenomena Scale (USP-SPS). SP were significantly more represented in the ASD-group versus TS-group, except for sound just-right perceptions and energy to released. ASD participants presented higher mean scores in all fields of USP-SPS severity scale respect on TS patients and healthy controls. The USP-SPS total score had significant positive correlations with the CYBOCS and MASC total scores in the TS cohort. In the ASD group, the USP-SPS total score was significantly negative correlated with the total IQ and marginally positive correlated with ADOS total score. SP are a frequently reported characteristic both of ASD and TS. Future studies are needed to better evaluate the differences on their phenomenology in patients with TS and ASD.

Attentional Bias to Angry Faces: Contrasting Responses in Typically Developing Children and Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

IntroductionHuman faces generally attract immediate attention. However, it has been found that children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) tend to allocate relatively less attention to faces. Previous research showed that typically developing children (TD) exhibited an attentional bias to angry faces, regardless of their anxiety levels, but it’s unclear if this applies to children with ASD. Therefore, the present study aims to investigate attentional bias induced by angry and/or happy faces in children with ASD.ObjectivesWe explored attentional bias toward angry faces in both TD children and children with ASD. We hypothesize that while TD children will show attentional capture effects in response to angry faces, children with ASD will not exhibit such attentional bias to facial stimuli, irrespective of their emotional content.MethodsBy now, five ASD participants (all male) and 34 TD participants (17 male), aged 6-12, have completed a continuous performance task. In this task, irrelevant distractors (angry or happy faces) appeared and disappeared abruptly, while the orientation of the target changed every 1,250 ms. Participants were asked to respond as quickly and accurately as possible to the orientaiton of the target. We designated the time when the distractor first appeared as T1, and subsequent time intervals at 1,250 ms increments were labeled as T2, T3, and T4. The time intervals when no distractor was present were labeled as TB (baseline). If the reaction time (RT) at T1 was significantly slower compared to TB, it indicated attentional bias by the distractor.ResultsFor the RT data, separate repeated measures ANOVAs with 2 (emotion) * 5 (time) factors were conducted for each group. The results revealed a significant main effect of time (F(4, 132) = 17.59, p < .01) and a significant interaction between emotion and time (F(3.27, 107.74) = 4.92, p < .01) only in TD. Post hoc t-tests indicated that TD children exhibited significantly slower RT at T1 compared to TB, but this difference was observed only for angry faces (t(33) = 4.84, p < .01). In contrast, no significant effect was found in children with ASD. In other words, TD demonstrated attentional bias only when exposed to angry faces, while ASD children did not exhibit attentional bias to either emotion.ConclusionsThis study aimed to investigate attentional bias to angry faces in both TD and ASD children. The results indicate that TD children exhibited an attentional bias when exposed to angry faces, whereas ASD children did not display such bias. These findings are consistent with previous research suggesting that TD children tend to show attentional bias towards angry faces, regardless of their anxiety levels. Furthermore, the absence of attentional bias to angry faces in ASD suggests that their characteristic of reduced attention to faces may contribute to the lack of attentional bias towards angry faces.Disclosure of InterestNone Declared

Comparison of The Effectiveness of Fones and Modified Bass Teeth Brushing Methods on Reducing Plaque Index in Autism Spectrum Disorders Children Aged 6-12 Years

Children with special needs, such as Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), are at a higher risk of developing caries. Brushing teeth is the most effective preventive measure to avoid the risk of developing dental and oral diseases. The Fones teeth brushing method has been proven to reduce dental plaque in ASD patients due to its simplicity. The modified Bass method is also reported to be effective in removing interdental plaque. This study is to investigate whether there is a difference in the effectiveness of teeth brushing techniques, specifically the Fones method and the modified Bass method, in reducing the plaque index in children with ASD. A quasi-experimental study with a pre-test and post-test design was conducted, with 24 ASD participants aged between 6-12 years. The Loe and Silness Plaque Index was used to measure the plaque index. Data analysis was conducted by comparing the two methods using a Paired t-test and a one-way ANOVA test. Indicate that there is a significant difference between the two treatments with a significance value of 0.039 (P<0.05). The average plaque index from the Fones method was found to be 0.444 greater than the modified Bass method. In conclusion: There is a difference in effectiveness between the Fones teeth brushing method and the modified Bass teeth brushing method in reducing the plaque index in children with ASD aged 6-12 years.

Differences in the link between social trait judgment and socio-emotional experience in neurotypical and autistic individuals

Neurotypical (NT) individuals and individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) make different judgments of social traits from others’ faces; they also exhibit different social emotional responses in social interactions. A common hypothesis is that the differences in face perception in ASD compared with NT is related to distinct social behaviors. To test this hypothesis, we combined a face trait judgment task with a novel interpersonal transgression task that induces measures social emotions and behaviors. ASD and neurotypical participants viewed a large set of naturalistic facial stimuli while judging them on a comprehensive set of social traits (e.g., warm, charismatic, critical). They also completed an interpersonal transgression task where their responsibility in causing an unpleasant outcome to a social partner was manipulated. The purpose of the latter task was to measure participants’ emotional (e.g., guilt) and behavioral (e.g., compensation) responses to interpersonal transgression. We found that, compared with neurotypical participants, ASD participants’ self-reported guilt and compensation tendency was less sensitive to our responsibility manipulation. Importantly, ASD participants and neurotypical participants showed distinct associations between self-reported guilt and judgments of criticalness from others' faces. These findings reveal a novel link between perception of social traits and social emotional responses in ASD.

Distinct social behavior and inter-brain connectivity in Dyads with autistic individuals

ABSTRACT Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is defined by distinctive socio-cognitive behaviors that deviate from typical patterns. Notably, social imitation skills appear to be particularly impacted, manifesting early on in development. This paper compared the behavior and inter-brain dynamics of dyads made up of two typically developing (TD) participants with mixed dyads made up of ASD and TD participants during social imitation tasks. By combining kinematics and EEG-hyperscanning, we show that individuals with ASD exhibited a preference for the follower rather than the lead role in imitating scenarios. Moreover, the study revealed inter-brain synchrony differences, with low-alpha inter-brain synchrony differentiating control and mixed dyads. The study’s findings suggest the importance of studying interpersonal phenomena in dynamic and ecological settings and using hyperscanning methods to capture inter-brain dynamics during actual social interactions.

Serum brain-derived neurotrophic factor concentration is different between autism spectrum disorders and intellectual disability children and adolescents

PurposeRecent studies showed that mature brain-derived neurotrophic factor (mBDNF) and its precursor proBDNF are associated with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Whether their levels are different between ASD and intellectual disability (ID) subjects is not clear. The aim of this study is to compare the serum mBDNF and proBDNF concentration, and mBNDF/proBDNF ratio in ASD and ID volunteers. MethodsChildren and adolescents with ASD or ID between the ages of 4 and 22 were recruited in Tianjin, China. Serum mBDNF and proBDNF level were tested and Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence (WPPSI), Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC), and Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS) evaluations were conducted. ResultsSerum mBDNF concentration and the ratio of mBDNF to proBDNF was higher in ASD subjects than that in ID subjects (P = 0.035 and P < 0.001, respectively), while serum proBDNF of ASD participants was lower compared to that of ID participants (P < 0.001). CARS score was positively correlated with serum mBDNF level (r = 0.33, P = 0.004) and m/p ratio (r = 0.39, P < 0.001), and negatively correlated with serum proBDNF level (r = −0.39, <0.001) after adjusting for age and IQ. The AUC of mBDNF, proBDNF, and m/p ratio were 0.741, 0.790, and 0.854, respectively, after adjusted for age and IQ. ConclusionSerum mBDNF, proBDNF and m/p ratio were different between ASD and ID group. The three biomarkers displayed good diagnostic values for classification of ASD and ID subjects.

Abnormal functional connectivity of the reward network is associated with social communication impairments in autism spectrum disorder: A large-scale multi-site resting-state fMRI study

BackgroundThe social motivation hypothesis proposes that the social deficits of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are related to reward system dysfunction. However, functional connectivity (FC) patterns of the reward network in ASD have not been systematically explored yet. MethodsThe reward network was defined as eight regions of interest (ROIs) per hemisphere, including the nucleus accumbens (NAc), caudate, putamen, anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), amygdala, and insula. We computed both the ROI-wise resting-state FC and seed-based whole-brain FC in 298 ASD participants and 348 typically developing (TD) controls from the Autism Brain Imaging Data Exchange I dataset. Two-sample t-tests were applied to obtain the aberrant FCs. Then, the association between aberrant FCs and clinical symptoms was assessed with Pearson's correlation or Spearman's correlation. In addition, Neurosynth Image Decoder was used to generate word clouds verifying the cognitive functions of the aberrant pathways. Furthermore, a three-way multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was conducted to examine the effects of gender, subtype and age on the atypical FCs. ResultsFor the within network analysis, the left ACC showed weaker FCs with both the right amygdala and left NAc in ASD compared with TD, which were negatively correlated with the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) total scores and Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS) total scores respectively. For the whole-brain analysis, weaker FC (i.e., FC between the left vmPFC and left calcarine gyrus, and between the right vmPFC and left precuneus) accompanied by stronger FC (i.e., FC between the left caudate and right insula) were exhibited in ASD relative to TD, which were positively associated with the SRS motivation scores. Additionally, we detected the main effect of age on FC between the left vmPFC and left calcarine gyrus, of subtype on FC between the right vmPFC and left precuneus, of age and age-by-gender interaction on FC between the left caudate and right insula. ConclusionsOur findings highlight the crucial role of abnormal FC patterns of the reward network in the core social deficits of ASD, which have the potential to reveal new biomarkers for ASD.

Corneal structural alterations in autism spectrum disorder: An in vivo confocal microscopy study.

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often exhibit joint hypermobility and connective tissue disorders. However, it remains unclear if ASD individuals also have structural alterations in the connective tissue of the cornea. This study aims to determine whether the Kobayashi structure (K-structure) characteristics differ between adults with ASD and typically developing controls (TDC) and explore the clinical correlates of the K-structure abnormality. We recruited 30 ASD adults and 35 TDC. Corneal structures, particularly the K-structure in the Bowman's layer, of the participants were examined using in vivo confocal microscopy (IVCM), and a K-grading ranging from 1 to 4 was given to each eye based on the level of morphological mosaicism. The ASD participants' eyes received a significantly higher single-eye K-grading than that of the TDC eyes (p < 0.001), and the medians [25th, 75th percentile] of bilateral-eye summed K-grading were 8 [7, 8] and 5 [4, 6] in ASD and TDC, respectively (p < 0.001). A significantly higher K-grading in the ASD participants' eyes was still observed after adjusting for the within-subject inter-eye correlation (p < 0.001). Youden Index showed the optimal cutoffs to differentiate ASD from TDC by bilateral-eye summed K-grading and single-eye K-grading was >6 and >3, respectively. Additionally, a higher K-grading was associated with fewer visual sensation seeking in ASD (Spearman's correlation coefficient ρ = -0.518, p = 0.008) and low visual registration (i.e., higher sensory threshold) in TDC (ρ = 0.446, p = 0.023). This study provided novel evidence of corneal structural alterations in ASD by IVCM. Our findings may not only support the prior hypothesis of the association between ASD and connective tissue abnormalities but also shed light on the relationship between connective tissue disorder and neurodevelopmental disorders.

17 Studying the Use of Politeness in Employment Specific Scenarios in Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Objective:Employment is crucial in the lives of adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) as gainful occupational activity creates opportunities to form meaningful social relationships, participate in community life, and become financially independent. Impairments in pragmatic language skills (i.e., use of language to achieve social goals) negatively impact the ability to make and maintain cooperative work relationships with employers and coworkers, which are critical aspects of employment. A specific pragmatic skill key to workplace communication includes using a suitable degree of politeness, loosely defined as demonstrating the appreciation of the thoughts and feelings of your listener. Politeness can be measured with politeness markers (PMs). Appropriate PM use promotes positive, cooperative relationships. There are two main categories of PMs: positive and negative PMs. Positive PMs express appreciation or praise to the listener. Negative PMs avoid conflict and marks consideration of the thoughts and feelings of the listener. Crucially, negative PMs require more monitoring of social boundaries as they require consideration of the conversational partner’s potential reactions to statements and their emotional states. This makes PMs a novel new approach to evaluating speech in persons with ASD. Because PMs serve a purely social function in language, they include non-tangible words, such as would, could, may, or might. The current study explores the utility of an employment-specific social communication assessment tool, the Voicemail Elicitation Task (VET), in persons with ASD. The VET has proven sensitive to identifying social communication deficits in persons with traumatic brain injury.Participants and Methods:The current cohort comparative study included a sample of young adults with ASD (n=22) and neurotypical controls (NTC; n=10). All participants were given the VET, which utilizes a standardized computerized language sampling procedure that assesses politeness markers (PMs) in work-related role-play scenarios. The outcome measure of the VET is PMs per minute (PMpM) which is obtained by dividing the sum of PMs by the speaking time (in minutes). Higher PMpM indicates higher PM use (more politeness), while lower PMpM indicates lower PM use (less politeness).Results:The preliminary results indicated a significantly lower total PMpM in ASD participants (mean: 13.68 SD: 6.28) compared to NTCs (mean 18.72, SD: 3.65), p = 0.026. Post hoc analysis indicated that the differences in groups were driven by significantly lower negative PMs rates used by the ASD group (mean 9.18, SD: 5.77) compared to NTCs (mean: 16.30, SD: 7.78), p = 0.002, while both groups were similar in their mean level of positive PMs use, p = 0.442.Conclusions:This study represents an important step toward validating the VET for use in ASD, which will improve the capacity of the field to address unemployment in this population. The results of the current study indicate that individuals with ASD show deficits in PM use which could impact their interpersonal relationships within the workplace environment. Designing interventions to target these deficits could help provide better employment outcomes for this population.

20 Using Automated Sentiment Analysis to Examine Self-Evaluation in Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Objective:Individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience negative self-evaluation, indicated by low levels of self-esteem and describing themselves more negatively to others. Variations in reading comprehension, difficulty identifying emotions, and masking (camouflaging of autistic traits) make it difficult to accurately measure self-evaluation of individuals with ASD using subjective self-report scales such as the Rosenburg Self-Esteem Scale. Therefore, it is important to explore more objective methods of measuring self-evaluation in ASD. Sentiment analysis is a popular Natural Language Processing (NLP) technique used to quantify the emotional content of language programmatically by automatically transforming text into a data frame of words represented as individual values or tokens. Each token can then be categorized as positive or negative with a sentiment dictionary. The current study aims to investigate an automated sentiment analysis approach to evaluate self-evaluation by quantifying implicit linguistic affective valence of ASD participants' verbal self-describing statements in a naturalistic setting. Specifically, we evaluated the frequency of positive or negative words used during a mock job interview in which individuals with ASD were asked to describe themselves. We then examined the relationship between positive and negative word usage and standard self-report measures of self-evaluation.Participants and Methods:Twenty-four young adults with ASD were included in this study with an age range of 15-24 and a mean age of 19.2 years. Participants completed a battery of assessments including a mock job interview in which they were asked to describe themselves as a measure of implicit self-esteem. Self-esteem and knowledge of personal strengths was assessed using the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale and Strengths Knowledge Scale, respectively. Interview transcripts were automatically transformed into word token data frames using the tidytext package in Rstudio. Frequencies of positive and negative words were calculated and their ratio to total word count was used to measure the implicit positivity and negativity of transcripts.Results:There was a significant negative correlation between the frequency of negative sentiment in transcripts and measure on the Rosenburg Self-Esteem Scale (r = -.376, p = .035) and the Strengths Knowledge Scale (r = -.387, p = .031) indicating that individuals with higher self-esteem and knowledge of their strengths used fewer negative words when talking during a mock interview.Conclusions:While our results are preliminary, this pilot study represents the first to use automated sentiment analysis to study self-evaluation in individuals with ASD. The use of this technique on natural linguistic data collected through a mock job interview allows researchers to quantitatively analyze the emotionality of transcriptions and create insights that would otherwise be unavailable using more subjective qualitative techniques. Limited research into self-evaluation in this population has yielded inconsistent results, relying too heavily upon qualitative or self-report measures. The ability to programmatically quantify affective valence in transcripts is a time and cost-effective technique for improving validity of future measures of self-evaluation.

Behavioral patterns in robotic collaborative assembly: comparing neurotypical and Autism Spectrum Disorder participants

IntroductionIn Industry 4.0, collaborative tasks often involve operators working with collaborative robots (cobots) in shared workspaces. Many aspects of the operator's well-being within this environment still need in-depth research. Moreover, these aspects are expected to differ between neurotypical (NT) and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) operators.MethodsThis study examines behavioral patterns in 16 participants (eight neurotypical, eight with high-functioning ASD) during an assembly task in an industry-like lab-based robotic collaborative cell, enabling the detection of potential risks to their well-being during industrial human-robot collaboration. Each participant worked on the task for five consecutive days, 3.5 h per day. During these sessions, six video clips of 10 min each were recorded for each participant. The videos were used to extract quantitative behavioral data using the NOVA annotation tool and analyzed qualitatively using an ad-hoc observational grid. Also, during the work sessions, the researchers took unstructured notes of the observed behaviors that were analyzed qualitatively.ResultsThe two groups differ mainly regarding behavior (e.g., prioritizing the robot partner, gaze patterns, facial expressions, multi-tasking, and personal space), adaptation to the task over time, and the resulting overall performance.DiscussionThis result confirms that NT and ASD participants in a collaborative shared workspace have different needs and that the working experience should be tailored depending on the end-user's characteristics. The findings of this study represent a starting point for further efforts to promote well-being in the workplace. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work comparing NT and ASD participants in a collaborative industrial scenario.