Figure - uploaded by Danna Oomen
Content may be subject to copyright.
Source publication
Previous event-related potential (ERP) research showed reduced self-referential processing in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). As different self-related stimuli were studied in isolation, it is unclear whether findings can be ascribed to a common underlying mechanism. Further, it is unknown whether altered self-referential processing is also evident...
Contexts in source publication
Context 1
... did not differ in age, sex, or years of education (see Table 1). Participants were reimbursed for their time. ...Context 2
... mean scores per group were also in line with the findings of Nijhof et al. (2018). In further confirmation of the groups, the AQ and SRS-A scores differed significantly between groups (see Table 1), and both questionnaires significantly correlated with the AQ-10 (AQ: r = .55, p <.001, SRS-A: r = .45, ...Context 4
... Journal of Neuroscience, 112(12) Result Differences* N1 120-180 ms, Cz Group x Person Person F(2, 116) = 3.31, p = .040, ηp² = .05 ...Context 5
... did not differ in age, sex, or years of education (see Table 1). Participants were reimbursed for their time. ...Context 6
... mean scores per group were also in line with the findings of Nijhof et al. (2018). In further confirmation of the groups, the AQ and SRS-A scores differed significantly between groups (see Table 1), and both questionnaires significantly correlated with the AQ-10 (AQ: r = .55, p <.001, SRS-A: r = .45, ...Similar publications
Background:
Although the electrophysiological event-related potential (ERP) in face processing (e.g., N170) is widely accepted as a face-sensitivity biomarker that is deficient in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), the time-varying brain networks during face recognition are still awaiting further investigation.
Methods:
To explore the s...
The eye gaze and its direction are important and relevant non-verbal cues for the establishment of social interactions and the perception of others’ emotional facial expressions. Gaze direction itself, whether eyes are looking straight at the viewer (direct gaze) or whether they look away (averted gaze), affects our social attention and emotional r...
Sensitivity to human faces has been suggested to be an early emerging capacity that promotes social interaction. However, the developmental processes that lead to cortical specialization to faces has remained unclear. The current study investigated both cortical sensitivity and categorical specificity through event-related potentials (ERPs) previou...
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterized by social communicative disturbance. Social communication requires rapid processing and accurate cognition regarding others' emotional expressions. Previous electrophysiological studies have attempted to elucidate the processes underlying atypical face-specific N170 responses to emotional faces in ASD...
Citations
... However, most importantly, we were able to detect the hypothesized 3-way interaction (although the direction of the effect was not in line with our hypothesis). Furthermore, the final sample size is relatively large compared to many previous EEG studies on autism (e.g., Amodeo et al., 2024;Goris et al., 2022Goris et al., , 2018Nijhof et al., 2018Nijhof et al., , 2024Oomen et al., 2022Oomen et al., , 2023, larger than those in EEG studies on autism and biological motion perception (see meta-analysis: Todorova et al., 2019), and larger than previous studies using the same paradigm (Cracco et al., 2022. ...
... This finding is consistent with our predictions as well as the current ERP literature. The parietal P3 component is regarded as a reliable index of self-referential processing (Knyazev, 2013;Oomen et al., 2022), as it has consistently been found that self-related information modulates the amplitude of the parietal P3. The parietal P3 amplitude was systematically found to be increased in neurotypical adults for self-relevant content such as one's own name (Fan et al., 2013;Holeckova et al., 2006;Oomen et al., 2022;Perrin et al., 2005;Tacikowski et al., 2011;Tacikowski & Nowicka, 2010;Zhao et al., 2009) or one's own face (Caharel et al., 2002;Ninomiya et al., 1998;Oomen et al., 2022;Sui et al., 2006). ...
... The parietal P3 component is regarded as a reliable index of self-referential processing (Knyazev, 2013;Oomen et al., 2022), as it has consistently been found that self-related information modulates the amplitude of the parietal P3. The parietal P3 amplitude was systematically found to be increased in neurotypical adults for self-relevant content such as one's own name (Fan et al., 2013;Holeckova et al., 2006;Oomen et al., 2022;Perrin et al., 2005;Tacikowski et al., 2011;Tacikowski & Nowicka, 2010;Zhao et al., 2009) or one's own face (Caharel et al., 2002;Ninomiya et al., 1998;Oomen et al., 2022;Sui et al., 2006). ...
... The parietal P3 component is regarded as a reliable index of self-referential processing (Knyazev, 2013;Oomen et al., 2022), as it has consistently been found that self-related information modulates the amplitude of the parietal P3. The parietal P3 amplitude was systematically found to be increased in neurotypical adults for self-relevant content such as one's own name (Fan et al., 2013;Holeckova et al., 2006;Oomen et al., 2022;Perrin et al., 2005;Tacikowski et al., 2011;Tacikowski & Nowicka, 2010;Zhao et al., 2009) or one's own face (Caharel et al., 2002;Ninomiya et al., 1998;Oomen et al., 2022;Sui et al., 2006). ...
The term “self-bias” refers to the human propensity to prioritize self- over other-related stimuli and is believed to influence various stages of the processing stream. By means of event-related potentials (ERPs), it was recently shown that the self-bias in a shape-label matching task modulates early as well as later phases of information processing in neurotypicals. Recent claims suggest autism-related deficits to specifically impact later stages of self-related processing; however, it is unclear whether these claims hold based on current findings. Using the shape-label matching task while recording ERPs in individuals with autism can clarify which stage of self-related processing is specifically affected in this condition. Therefore, this study sought to investigate the temporal course of self-related processing in adults with and without autism. Thirty-two adults with autism and 27 neurotypicals completed a shape-label matching task while ERPs were concomitantly recorded. At the behavioral level, results furnished evidence for a comparable self-bias across groups, with no differences in task performance between adults with and without autism. At the ERP level, the two groups showed a similar self-bias at early stages of self-related information processing (the N1 component). Conversely, the autism group manifested a lessened differentiation between self- and other-related stimuli at later stages (the parietal P3 component). In line with recent claims of later phases of self-related processing being altered in autism, we found an equivalent self-bias between groups at an early, sensory stage of processing, yet a strongly diminished self-bias at a later, cognitive stage in adults with autism.
Purpose
The self is a multidimensional concept that can be represented at a pre-reflective (first-order) level, at a deeper, reflective level (second-order), or even at a meta-level (representing one’s own thoughts, i.e. self-related mentalizing). Since self-related processing and mentalizing are crucial for social cognition, both constructs have been researched in individuals with autism, who experience persistent socio-communicative difficulties. Some studies suggested autism-related reductions of the self-bias, i.e. tendency to preferentially process self-related content; while others observed a decreased ability to mentalize on one’s own thoughts in autism. However, prior research examined distinct levels of self-related processing in isolation, in the context of separate studies.
Methods
In this investigation, we directly compared self-bias, self- and other-related mentalizing within the same sample of adolescents with and without autism, to identify which of these are altered in this condition. Thirty adolescents with autism and 26 age- and IQ-matched controls performed a visual search task (first-order self-bias), a trait adjectives task (second-order self-bias), a feeling-of-knowing task (self-related mentalizing) and the Frith-Happé animations task (other-related mentalizing). Parents also completed two questionnaires (i.e. SRS, SCQ) assessing the adolescent’s degree of autism traits.
Results
Our findings replicated previous research showing reduced other-related mentalizing in autism. However, we did not find any difference between adolescents with and without autism in terms of first- or second-order self-bias, nor in the ability to mentalize on one’s own thoughts.
Conclusion
In line with recent investigations, our results do not support earlier claims of altered self-related information processing in autism.
Studies have widely reported that trait anxiety is associated with a range of cognitive biases toward external negative emotional stimuli. However, few studies have examined whether trait anxiety modulates intrinsic self-relevant processing. This study investigated the electrophysiological mechanism underlying trait anxiety's modulating effect on self-relevant processing. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded while participants performed a perceptual matching task that assigned an arbitrary geometric shape to an association with a "self" or "non-self" label. Results showed larger N1 amplitudes under self-association than under friend-association conditions, and smaller P2 amplitudes for self- than for stranger-association conditions in individuals with high trait anxiety. However, these self-biases in the N1 and P2 stages were not observed in those with low trait anxiety until the later N2 stage, in which the self-association condition provoked smaller N2 amplitudes than the stranger-association condition. In addition, both high and low trait anxiety individuals showed larger P3 amplitudes for the self-association condition than for the friend- and stranger-association conditions. These findings suggest that, although both high and low trait anxiety individuals showed self-bias, high trait anxiety individuals distinguished between self-relevant and non-self-relevant stimuli at an earlier stage, which may reflect hypervigilance to self-relevant stimuli.
