Mediating role of sensory differences in the relationship between autistic traits and internalizing problems

Autistic traits and speech perception in social and non-social noises

Individuals with the autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience difficulties in perceiving speech in background noises with temporal dips; they also lack social orienting. We tested two hypotheses: (1) the higher the autistic traits, the lower the performance in the speech-in-noise test, and (2) individuals with high autistic traits experience greater difficulty in perceiving speech, especially in the non-vocal noise, because of their attentional bias toward non-vocal sounds. Thirty-eight female Japanese university students participated in an experiment measuring their ability to perceive speech in the presence of noise. Participants were asked to detect Japanese words embedded in vocal and non-vocal background noises with temporal dips. We found a marginally significant effect of autistic traits on speech perception performance, suggesting a trend that favors the first hypothesis. However, caution is needed in this interpretation because the null hypothesis is not rejected. No significant interaction was found between the types of background noise and autistic traits, indicating that the second hypothesis was not supported. This might be because individuals with high autistic traits in the general population have a weaker attentional bias toward non-vocal sounds than those with ASD or to the explicit instruction given to attend to the target speech.

Binocular rivalry in autistic and socially anxious adults

Background

Social anxiousness is a pervasive symptom in both social anxiety disorder and autism spectrum conditions. Binocular rivalry, which occurs when different images are presented to each eye, has been used to explore how visual and cognitive processing differs across various clinical diagnoses. Previous studies have separately explored whether individuals with autism or anxiety experience binocular rivalry in ways that are different from neurotypical individuals.

Methods

We applied rivalry paradigms that are similar to those used in previous studies of autism and general anxiety to individuals experiencing symptoms of social anxiousness at clinical or subclinical levels. We also incorporated rivalrous stimuli featuring neutral and emotional facial valances to explore potential overlap of social processing components in social anxiety and autism.

Results

We hypothesized that higher levels of social anxiousness would increase binocular rivalry switch rates and that higher levels of autistic traits would decrease switch rates. However, stimulus condition did not affect switch rates in either diagnostic group, and switch rate was not significantly predictive of dimensional measures of either autism or social anxiety.

Discussion

This may suggest a common mechanism for atypical visual cognition styles previously associated with social anxiety and autism. Alternatively, differences in switch rates may only emerge at higher trait levels than reported by the participants in our studies. Furthermore, these findings may be influenced by sex differences in our unique sample.

Internalizing problems and suffering due to sensory symptoms in children and adolescents with and without autism spectrum disorder

Sensory symptoms are common in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Previous studies have shown a positive correlation between sensory symptoms and internalizing problems; however, the role of the suffering due to sensory symptoms is not well understood. In the present study, we hypothesized that the relationship between sensory symptoms and internalizing problems in children is mediated by children’s and surrounding people’s suffering due to sensory symptoms. Parents of 113 students aged 6–15 years with and without ASD completed questionnaires about their children’s autistic traits, sensory symptoms, suffering due to sensory symptoms, and internalizing problems. The results showed that autistic traits and sensory symptoms were distributed as a continuum throughout children with and without ASD. Therefore, we investigated the relationship among variables in children with and without ASD attending regular classes. Structural equation modeling indicated that those who scored higher on sensory symptoms demonstrated greater suffering due to sensory symptoms as predictors of internalizing problems. Our findings provide evidence for developing a support system that specifically reduces suffering due to sensory symptoms, especially for students in regular classes.