Papers by Clarence J Singleton
Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2016
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Background: Non-social behaviours, such as repetitive actions and restricted interests, form one ... more Background: Non-social behaviours, such as repetitive actions and restricted interests, form one of the crucial diagnostic criteria for Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs). The Extreme Male Brain (EMB) theory of autism suggests that these characteristics reflect an exaggeration of typically male cognitive function, in particular a drive towards rule-based systems, or ‘Systemising’. The other core feature of ASD is socially-related and involves deficiencies in social behaviour and understanding, characterised in EMB theory as a lack of ‘Empathising’. The cognitive mechanisms underlying non-social processing and how they relate to social processing are not well understood. Researchers have suggested that these two cognitive features of ASD may be unrelated to each other in the typically developing population and that they may demand separate explanations. It is therefore suggested that research on these two processes in the neurotypical population should clarify their relatedness. Attent...
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Researchers have suggested that the two primary cognitive features of autism spectrum disorder (A... more Researchers have suggested that the two primary cognitive features of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), a drive toward nonsocial processing and a reduced drive toward social processing, may be unrelated to each other in the neurotypical (NT) population and may therefore require separate explanations. Drive toward types of processing may be related to physiological arousal to categories of stimuli, such as social (e.g., faces) or nonsocial (e.g., trains). This study investigated how autistic traits in an NT population might relate to differences in physiological responses to nonsocial compared with social stimuli. NT participants were recruited to examine these differences in those with high vs. low degrees of ASD traits. Forty-six participants (21 male, 25 female) completed the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ) to measure ASD traits before viewing a series of 24 images while skin conductance response (SCR) was recorded. Images included six nonsocial, six social, six face-like cartoons, and six nonsocial (relating to participants' personal interests). Analysis revealed that those with a higher AQ had significantly greater SCR arousal to nonsocial stimuli than those with a low AQ, and the higher the AQ, the greater the difference between SCR arousal to nonsocial and social stimuli. This is the first study to identify the relationship between AQ and physiological response to nonsocial stimuli, and a relationship between physiological response to both social and nonsocial stimuli, suggesting that physiological response may underlie the atypical drive toward nonsocial processing seen in ASD, and that at the physiological level at least the social and nonsocial in ASD may be related to one another. Autism Res 2014, • • : • • – • • .
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Papers by Clarence J Singleton