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 …

Understanding Differences In Social Learning, Joshua Patenaude

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Previous research has shown that individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) appear to learn from social and non-social rewards at different rates compared to typically developing individuals. Several hypotheses have been developed to explain these differences, including the social motivation hypothesis, the weak central coherence hypothesis and hypotheses related to probabilistic learning ability. However, in all cases, the literature shows only mixed support for these ideas. This dissertation focuses on identifying which assumptions from these hypotheses replicate and what replication successes and failures mean for the study of autism-spectrum traits within the general population.

This work takes a “spectrum” approach …

Corrigendum: Saccade Latency Provides Evidence For Reduced Face Inversion Effects With Higher Autism Traits (Frontiers In Human Neuroscience, (2020), 13, 10.3389/Fnhum.2019.00470), Robin Laycock, Kylie Wood, Andrea Wright, Sheila G. Crewther, Melvyn A. Goodale

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Copyright © 2020 Laycock, Wood, Wright, Crewther and Goodale. In the original article, there was a mistake in the published legend for Figure 2. The results for the high and low Autism Trait (AT) groups were mistakenly interchanged. The correct legend appears below. Figure 2. (A) Average saccade onset times (SOTs) to detect the photograph containing a face or a car in the upright and inverted tasks for high and low Autism Trait (AT) Groups. (B) Face and car inversion effects, calculated as the difference in mean SOTs between upright and inverted tasks for high and low AT Groups. Error …

Saccade Latency Provides Evidence For Reduced Face Inversion Effects With Higher Autism Traits, Robin Laycock, Kylie Wood, Andrea Wright, Sheila G. Crewther, Melvyn A. Goodale

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

© Copyright © 2020 Laycock, Wood, Wright, Crewther and Goodale. Individuals on the autism spectrum are reported to show impairments in the processing of social information, including aspects of eye-movements towards faces. Abnormalities in basic-level visual processing are also reported. In the current study, we sought to determine if the latency of saccades made towards social targets (faces) in a natural scene as opposed to inanimate targets (cars) would be related to sub-clinical autism traits (ATs) in individuals drawn from a neurotypical population. The effect of stimulus inversion was also examined given that difficulties with processing inverted faces are thought …

Effects Of Group Functional Behavior-Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy For Obsessive-Compulsive Behavior In A Youth With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Nicole Neil, Tricia Vause, Heather Jaksic, Maurice Feldman

Education Publications

Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) often present with comorbid Obsessive Compulsive Behaviors (OCBs), but little research exists on effective intervention for OCBs. Using a single-case experimental design, this study highlights the efficacy of a Group Functional Behavior-Based Cognitive-Behavior Therapy (Fb-CBT) to reduce OCBs in an 11-year-old youth. Tailored for individuals with ASD, Fb-CBT included traditional CBT components (e.g., psychoeducation, cognitive-behavioral skills training, and exposure and response prevention), functional behavior assessment and intervention, and a group parent-training component. Time-series parent report data and standardized OCB measures showed clinically significant decreases in OCBs, increase in psychosocial functioning, and high consumer satisfaction.

Pearl Harvesting Autism, Mariya Gruntovskaya

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis addresses the difficulties of on-line information searching as it relates to the topic of autism. A review of existing search strategies is presented and their limitations are discussed. A new method for deriving a set of search-terms for comprehensive searching, Pearl Harvesting, was tested here to determine the necessary search terms (i.e., synonym ring) for ERIC and PsycINFO databases. Once discovered and validated, a synonym ring can be copied and pasted directly into the search box of the database, providing a simple, thorough and time saving way of conducting on-line research in the field. This easily used method …