Abstract
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.
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Notes
Throughout this paper, we use an abbreviated version of the diagnostic term and refer to a person with a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder, as a person with (a diagnosis of) autism. With this, we do not intend to take a stance in the ongoing person-first versus identity-first debate, in which there is currently no consensus. We acknowledge and respect different language preferences to refer to a person with a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder.
Due to time constraints, practice was only repeated two times for two participants, who scored below 70% twice. One of the two scored below chance at the actual task, and was thus removed from further analysis, whereas the other scored well above chance. Importantly, our main findings did not change in a statistically significant way when this participant was excluded, therefore we report results from the full sample.
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LA was supported by a Special Research Fund of Ghent University, awarded to JRW; JG was supported by a PhD fellowship, and ADN by a postdoctoral fellowship, of the FWO—Research Foundation Flanders.
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Amodeo, L., Goris, J., Nijhof, A.D. et al. Electrophysiological correlates of self-related processing in adults with autism. Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci (2024). https://doi.org/10.3758/s13415-024-01157-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/s13415-024-01157-0