Cognitive bias in high-autistic trait individuals: An examination of attention allocation to threatening emotional stimuli

IF 3.5 2区心理学 Q1 PSYCHOLOGY, SOCIAL

Personality and Individual Differences Pub Date : 2025-03-18 DOI:10.1016/j.paid.2025.113170

Xin Zhang, Kewen Wang, Huibin Jia, Qingqing He, Xiaolin Zhang, Enguo Wang

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Abstract

Introduction

The study explores cognitive biases in individuals with high autistic traits (AT), particularly their attention allocation to threatening emotional stimuli. It aims to understand whether these individuals exhibit attention biases similar to those with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and how this relates to event-related potentials (ERP).

Methods

Participants were screened and divided into high and low AT groups based on the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ). The dot-probe task was used to measure attention bias, with EEG recordings analyzing P1 and N170 ERP components during automatic and controlled processing stages.

Results: Both groups showed attention bias towards threatening faces, with high AT individuals demonstrating early attention orientation during both processing stages. ERP data revealed differences in P1 and N170 components, suggesting atypical processing of emotional faces in high AT individuals.

Conclusions

The study concludes that high AT individuals exhibit attention biases and neural processing differences similar to those with ASD, particularly towards threatening emotional stimuli. These findings provide insights into the cognitive mechanisms of social challenges in the autism spectrum.

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来源期刊

Personality and Individual Differences PSYCHOLOGY, SOCIAL-

CiteScore

8.50

自引率

4.70%

发文量

577

审稿时长

41 days

期刊介绍： Personality and Individual Differences is devoted to the publication of articles (experimental, theoretical, review) which aim to integrate as far as possible the major factors of personality with empirical paradigms from experimental, physiological, animal, clinical, educational, criminological or industrial psychology or to seek an explanation for the causes and major determinants of individual differences in concepts derived from these disciplines. The editors are concerned with both genetic and environmental causes, and they are particularly interested in possible interaction effects.