Psychology Commons^™

Investigating Neural Mechanisms Associated With The Double Empathy Problem Using Fnirs Hyperscanning, Kate E. Turner

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The Double Empathy Problem posits that autistic social difficulties are due to differences in communication styles rather than an autistic deficit in theory of mind (ToM). We used fNIRS hyperscanning to examine whether neural synchrony in pairs with varying levels of autistic traits during social interactions supports the Double Empathy Problem. Participants with low and high autistic trait expression were paired creating High-High, Low-High, and Low-Low groups. Pairs completed two trials where they 1) listened to and 2) discussed stories that contained or lacked theory of mind elements, while brain activity was recorded within the ToM network. During conversation, High-High …