Autism Research最新文献

{"title":"Evaluating the CELF-5 Screening Test and Vineland-3 for Identifying Language Difficulties in Autism and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder","authors":"Vishnu Priya Mohanakumar Sindhu,&nbsp;Amanda Brignell,&nbsp;Mia Moses,&nbsp;Kathryn Kallady,&nbsp;Mark A. Bellgrove,&nbsp;Beth P. Johnson","doi":"10.1002/aur.70021","DOIUrl":"10.1002/aur.70021","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Language screening tools are frequently used to identify children with potential undiagnosed language difficulties. These difficulties are more prevalent in autistic children and those with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) compared to neurotypical peers. Despite the widespread use of tools like the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals, Fifth Edition Screening Test (CELF-5 Screener) and the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales, Third Edition (Vineland-3), their sensitivity and specificity for this population have not been empirically validated. This study aimed to evaluate the screening accuracy of the CELF-5 Screener and Vineland-3 in children diagnosed with autism and/or ADHD and compare their performance to the gold standard measure. The sample consisted of 132 participants (<i>n</i>\u0000 _autism = 25; <i>n</i>\u0000 _ADHD = 29, and <i>n</i>\u0000 _autism+ADHD = 78; <i>M</i>\u0000 _{age in years} = 9.6; % male = 59) from the Monash Autism-ADHD Genetics and Neurodevelopment Project. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of the CELF-5 Screener and Vineland-3 receptive and expressive language subdomain scores were compared against those of the clinician-administered CELF-5 receptive and expressive language composite scores. The screening accuracy of each tool was further evaluated through Receiver Operating Characteristic analyses and calculations of Youden's <i>J</i> statistic. The CELF-5 Screener demonstrated poor sensitivity for receptive language difficulties (35.6%) while demonstrating high specificity (95.3%). Similarly, for expressive language difficulties, the sensitivity was low (37.9%), and the specificity was high (91.1%). The Vineland-3 showed high sensitivity (93.3%) but low specificity (48%) for expressive language difficulties and inadequate sensitivity (80.9%) and specificity (22.4%) for receptive language difficulties. Both the CELF-5 Screener and Vineland-3 may miss a significant number of children with co-occurring language difficulties related to autism and/or ADHD. Examiners must understand these tools' strengths and limitations, especially when assessing neurodivergent children whose language development might not follow a normative trajectory.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":131,"journal":{"name":"Autism Research","volume":"18 4","pages":"857-869"},"PeriodicalIF":5.3,"publicationDate":"2025-03-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143652357","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Paths to Common Ground in ASD","authors":"Einat Karin,&nbsp;Nirit Bauminger Zviely,&nbsp;Yael Estrugo,&nbsp;Maya Sabag,&nbsp;Ronny Geva","doi":"10.1002/aur.70006","DOIUrl":"10.1002/aur.70006","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Common ground (CG), the shared contextual knowledge serving everyday situations like conversations, is crucial for effective communication. This study delved into CG generation between peers with autism spectrum disorder (ASD, <i>N</i> = 84) compared to Controls (<i>N</i> = 56) children and adolescents (ages 6–16 years) paired into peer dyads. We aimed to deepen the understanding of the mechanism involved in CG efficacy among peers by exploring the roles of Theory of Mind (ToM) and Vocabulary in CG formation during play. Participants engaged in a structured task probing CG production in an ambiguous setting. Findings show that ASD and Control dyads generate CG spontaneously, yet the Control group demonstrated greater efficiency by achieving common conceptualization faster and with fewer words. Age and CG measures were correlated, outlining CG development, and Path analysis models suggested independent contributions from Vocabulary and ToM to CG efficiency. Limitations include the task's structured nature, precluding a comprehensive assessment of language and visual perception abilities. Taken together, the findings highlight the potential for interventions targeting CG acquisition in ASD, which is crucial for daily life participation. Interventions could harness cognitive processes like vocabulary and ToM to enhance dialogue efficacy among children with ASD.</p>","PeriodicalId":131,"journal":{"name":"Autism Research","volume":"18 4","pages":"845-856"},"PeriodicalIF":5.3,"publicationDate":"2025-03-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/aur.70006","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143652361","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Sex-Differential Trajectories of Domain-Specific Associations Between Autistic Traits and Co-Occurring Emotional-Behavioral Concerns in Autistic Children","authors":"Yun-Ju Chen,&nbsp;Thomas W. Frazier,&nbsp;Peter Szatmari,&nbsp;Eric Duku,&nbsp;Annie E. Richard,&nbsp;Isabel M. Smith,&nbsp;Lonnie Zwaigenbaum,&nbsp;Rachael Bedford,&nbsp;Connor M. Kerns,&nbsp;Anat Zaidman-Zait,&nbsp;Terry Bennett,&nbsp;Mayada Elsabbagh,&nbsp;Tracy Vaillancourt,&nbsp;Stelios Georgiades","doi":"10.1002/aur.70018","DOIUrl":"10.1002/aur.70018","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Assessing autistic traits alongside co-occurring emotional/behavioral concerns (EBCs) is challenging due to their overlap in clinical presentations, which can vary by age and sex. This study aimed to investigate domain-specific associations between autistic traits and EBCs–including anxiety, affective, attention-deficit/hyperactivity, and oppositional-defiant problems–across childhood in autistic boys and girls. We prospectively followed 389 children (84% male) diagnosed with autism at ages 2–5 years, using the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS) and Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) across eight timepoints until age 12. Moderated nonlinear factor analysis was used to identify and adjust for measurement non-invariance of SRS items by age, sex, and EBCs. The adjusted scores were then used for sex-moderated time-varying modeling of associations between autistic traits and EBCs. Several SRS items in the domains of social-interaction difficulties and repetitive mannerisms showed significant intercept bias by age and level of co-occurring anxiety and ADHD (effect size <i>r</i> &gt; 0.20). In autistic boys, strong associations were observed between social-communication difficulties and EBCs around ages 7–9, which tended to diminish in late childhood. In contrast, autistic girls showed stable or intensifying associations, particularly with anxiety, into late childhood. Results revealed significant associations between autistic traits and EBCs after addressing item-level measurement biases. The varying associations over time highlight the importance of continuous monitoring to promptly address autistic children's sex-differential mental health needs. These findings emphasize the benefits of refining behavioral constructs and adopting a nuanced developmental approach to identify critical periods of symptom coupling/decoupling for informing evaluation and service provision.</p>","PeriodicalId":131,"journal":{"name":"Autism Research","volume":"18 4","pages":"820-832"},"PeriodicalIF":5.3,"publicationDate":"2025-03-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/aur.70018","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143626970","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Semi-Automated Multi-Label Classification of Autistic Mannerisms by Machine Learning on Post Hoc Skeletal Tracking","authors":"Christian Lemler,&nbsp;Solvejg K. Kleber,&nbsp;Leonie Polzer,&nbsp;Naisan Raji,&nbsp;Janina Kitzerow-Cleven,&nbsp;Ziyon Kim,&nbsp;Simeon Platte,&nbsp;Christine M. Freitag,&nbsp;Nico Bast","doi":"10.1002/aur.70020","DOIUrl":"10.1002/aur.70020","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Mannerisms describe repetitive or unconventional body movements like arm flapping. These movements are early markers of restricted and repetitive behaviors (RRBs) in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, assessing mannerisms reliably is challenging. Even after extensive training in behavioral observations, inter-rater agreements for mannerism items remain insufficient. The current study used machine learning (ML) to classify mannerisms from videotaped behavioral observations in children with ASD. We developed a classification scheme for mannerisms as ground truth and applied it to videotaped behavioral observations from an early intervention study. ML was used in two steps: First, the OpenPose algorithm post hoc extracted features based on body movements in the videos. Second, a long short-term memory (LSTM) neural network classified the features in a multi-label approach to distinguish between the absence of mannerisms, flapping, jumping, and both flapping + jumping. The trained models achieved 70.2% accuracy (<i>F</i>1 score: 31.8%) using nested cross-validation. The analysis improves on previous videotaped ML classification studies by splitting training and test data subject-wise, highlighting its clinical applicability. The LSTM models are made publicly available for use with other video datasets. Our results show that ML-based classification of mannerisms is a promising tool for enhancing objective diagnostic methods of behavioral observations.</p>","PeriodicalId":131,"journal":{"name":"Autism Research","volume":"18 4","pages":"833-844"},"PeriodicalIF":5.3,"publicationDate":"2025-03-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/aur.70020","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143626967","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Slow but Steady: Similarities and Differences in Executive Functioning Between Autistic and Non-Autistic Adults","authors":"Robert M. Jertberg,&nbsp;Sander Begeer,&nbsp;Hilde M. Geurts,&nbsp;Bhismadev Chakrabarti,&nbsp;Erik Van der Burg","doi":"10.1002/aur.70015","DOIUrl":"10.1002/aur.70015","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Prior research has established differences between autistic and non-autistic individuals across the domains of executive function (EF). While some early theories portrayed these differences as universal to the autism spectrum, recent findings have been quite mixed. Factors like small samples, the components of EF being measured, and the age and intelligence quotient (IQ) of those being compared may contribute to this diversity in results. Moreover, research suggests performance over time might fluctuate in different patterns for autistic and non-autistic individuals. To test EF differences and the possible influence of these factors upon them, we recruited a sample of over 900 autistic and non-autistic participants (with generally average/above average IQ levels) from 18 to 77 years of age. They completed a battery of tasks measuring inhibition, cognitive flexibility, working memory, and attentional orienting to social and nonsocial cues. We found that performance was similar between groups in our primary measures of EF, although autistic participants were consistently slower, more susceptible to the effects of spatial cueing, and more prone to certain errors in the working memory task. Differences between groups were generally not influenced by participants' age, gender, or IQ. Performance over time varied only in the working memory task. While autistic adults may still face related challenges in real life, these findings suggest that being autistic does not necessarily imply executive dysfunction on a basic cognitive level, contradicting theories assuming universal impairments therein. Moreover, the lack of influence of included demographic factors suggests that explanations for discrepancies in the literature lie elsewhere.</p>","PeriodicalId":131,"journal":{"name":"Autism Research","volume":"18 4","pages":"802-819"},"PeriodicalIF":5.3,"publicationDate":"2025-03-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/aur.70015","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143626974","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Common Gut Microbial Signatures in Autism Spectrum Disorder and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder","authors":"Zhifeng Cai,&nbsp;Chao Che,&nbsp;Dong Li,&nbsp;Xiaoli Li,&nbsp;Xiaoxiao Yu,&nbsp;Lianhu Yu,&nbsp;Qin Sun,&nbsp;Yaofang Niu,&nbsp;Aihua Cao","doi":"10.1002/aur.70016","DOIUrl":"10.1002/aur.70016","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>The potential etiological and diagnostic values of the gut microbiota in children with neurodevelopmental disorders are encouraging but controversial. In particular, the composition and characteristics of the gut microbiota in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) remain largely unidentified. Herein, we analyzed stool samples from 113 participants with a clinical diagnosis of ASD, 43 with ADHD, 8 with both ASD and ADHD, and 120 healthy controls between 2 and 11 years of age using 16S rRNA sequencing. We observed that clinical diagnosis, age, comorbidities, food sensitivities, and antibiotic use significantly affected the gut microbiota. The enriched genera in the control group were relatively common and dominant human gut bacteria, such as <i>Bacteroides</i>, <i>Faecalibacterium</i>, and <i>Roseburia</i>. The genera present in children with neurodevelopmental disorders showed greater heterogeneity, and the abundance of <i>Bifidobacterium</i> was consistently increased. We found 4899 deregulated microbial metabolic functions and revealed the formation of a divergent genus-level network in patients. This analysis demonstrated that the gut microbial signatures efficiently discriminated patients from healthy participants in both the discovery (area under the curve [AUC]: 0.95–0.98) and validation (AUC: 0.69–0.74) sets. Importantly, although ASD and ADHD share several gut microbial characteristics, specific bacteria that contribute to the disease pathogenesis may have different metabolic functions.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":131,"journal":{"name":"Autism Research","volume":"18 4","pages":"741-751"},"PeriodicalIF":5.3,"publicationDate":"2025-03-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143569026","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Building Capacity: A Systematic Review of Training in the Diagnosis of Autism for Community-Based Clinicians","authors":"Jessica V. Smith,&nbsp;Mya Howard,&nbsp;Michelle Menezes,&nbsp;Christina Burroughs,&nbsp;Jessica Pappagianopoulos,&nbsp;Vibha Sastri,&nbsp;Sophie Brunt,&nbsp;Ryan Miller,&nbsp;Anzhelika Parenchuk,&nbsp;Jocelyn Kuhn,&nbsp;Micah O. Mazurek","doi":"10.1002/aur.70014","DOIUrl":"10.1002/aur.70014","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In an effort to reduce the “waitlist crisis,” researchers have developed training programs to educate community-based clinicians in best-practice autism diagnostic assessments. This systematic review aims to synthesize the effectiveness and implementation outcomes of such trainings. The following databases were searched from inception until August 2023: PubMed, Web of Science, APA PsycINFO, CINAHL, ERIC, and a select number from Google Scholar. Ten studies were included in the present review because they met the following criteria: development and/or evaluation of a training for practicing community-based clinicians to diagnose autism, published full-text in English, and original research. Risk of bias was assessed through an adapted NIH quality assessment tool. Only seven distinct training programs in autism diagnosis for practicing community-based clinicians were identified. Trainings demonstrated preliminary efficacy in the improvement of clinician knowledge, self-efficacy, practice behavior, and diagnostic accuracy. Many of the trainings had a reported positive impact on the community and were feasible to participate in; however, systems-level factors (e.g., time and reimbursement) remain as barriers to community-based diagnosis. Findings from the present review position clinician training as a promising strategy to increase families' timely access to an autism diagnosis. More research on training models is needed due to both the limited number of trainings and the limited reported effectiveness and implementation outcomes. Future implementation studies are also needed to reduce systems-level barriers and to aid in the determination of what trainings best fit the needs of different contexts.</p>","PeriodicalId":131,"journal":{"name":"Autism Research","volume":"18 4","pages":"690-709"},"PeriodicalIF":5.3,"publicationDate":"2025-03-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/aur.70014","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143569020","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Camera Movement Impacts on Mu-Wave Activity During Action Observation in Adults With Autism Spectrum Disorders Without Intellectual Disabilities","authors":"Veronica Nisticò,&nbsp;Renata del Giudice,&nbsp;Francesca Serio,&nbsp;Giovanni Boido,&nbsp;Gianmarco Ingrosso,&nbsp;Francesco Lombardi,&nbsp;Claudio Sanguineti,&nbsp;Valeria Casula,&nbsp;Adelaide Baccara,&nbsp;Elia Chiudinelli,&nbsp;Francesca Vairano,&nbsp;Federica Maria Panzeri,&nbsp;Mauro Giori,&nbsp;Paolo Maria Inghilleri di Villadauro,&nbsp;Raffaella Faggioli,&nbsp;Orsola Gambini,&nbsp;Tomaso Subini,&nbsp;Benedetta Demartini","doi":"10.1002/aur.70012","DOIUrl":"10.1002/aur.70012","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The aim of this study was to investigate differences in mu-wave modulation in individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) without intellectual disabilities compared to a group of neurotypical controls (NT). Thirty autistic individuals and 30 NT underwent an EEG recording while watching short videos depicting goal-oriented action filmed from a fixed position, zooming in on the scene, and approaching the scene by means of a steadycam. Then, participants underwent a rating task to evaluate their subjective viewing experience. We found that steadycam videos elicited enhanced event-related desynchronization (ERD), suggestive of enhanced neural activity, in the NT group, and a reduced ERD in the autistic group, compared to the other filming conditions. Autistic participants also showed difficulties in returning to baseline mu-power levels after watching videos filmed from a fixed position. Finally, NT reported feeling more comfortable watching videos with movement, whereas autistic participants did not exhibit differences between conditions. We speculated that static, less naturalistic stimuli might impose higher and prolonged cognitive demands on autistic individuals. Understanding these differences might help develop tailored interventions to support perceptual, cognitive, and social processes of autistic people.</p>","PeriodicalId":131,"journal":{"name":"Autism Research","volume":"18 4","pages":"774-787"},"PeriodicalIF":5.3,"publicationDate":"2025-02-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/aur.70012","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143517521","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Atypical Developmental Patterns of Sensorimotor-Related Networks in Autism Spectrum Disorder: A BrainAGE Study Based on Resting-State fMRI","authors":"Yifei Wu,&nbsp;Chunying Lu,&nbsp;Min Li,&nbsp;Bowen Li,&nbsp;Xing Shang,&nbsp;Guifen Jian,&nbsp;Qianyue Zhang,&nbsp;Xue Chen,&nbsp;Xuan Cao,&nbsp;Bifang He,&nbsp;Jia Wang,&nbsp;Heng Liu,&nbsp;Heng Chen","doi":"10.1002/aur.70008","DOIUrl":"10.1002/aur.70008","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a type of neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by atypical brain development. Previous whole-brain BrainAGE studies have unveiled the presence of accelerated or delayed brain function developmental patterns in individuals with ASD. However, it remains unclear whether these patterns manifest at a global level throughout the entire brain or are specific to certain functional sub-networks. The study included resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data from 127 individuals with ASD and 135 healthy controls (aged between 5 and 40 years). ALFF maps were measured for each participant. Then, sub-network-level BrainAGE analyses were conducted across 10 sub-networks using the Individual-weighted Multilayer Perceptron Network (ILWMLP) regression method. The BrainAGE analyses revealed atypical developmental trajectories in sensorimotor-related sub-networks, encompassing auditory, motor, and sensorimotor sub-networks. In individuals with ASD, delayed brain function development was observed in the auditory and sensorimotor networks, with a more pronounced delay observed in older individuals. Conversely, the motor network exhibited accelerated development in younger individuals but delayed development in older individuals. Our findings unveiled aberrant developmental patterns in sensorimotor-related sub-networks among individuals with ASD, exhibiting distinct atypical profiles across different sub-networks. These results might contribute to a deeper understanding of the deviant brain development observed in ASD.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":131,"journal":{"name":"Autism Research","volume":"18 4","pages":"765-773"},"PeriodicalIF":5.3,"publicationDate":"2025-02-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143494875","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Altered Patterns of Dynamic Functional Connectivity Underpin Reduced Expressions of Social–Emotional Reciprocity in Autistic Adults","authors":"Kristína Czekóová,&nbsp;Radek Mareček,&nbsp;Rostislav Staněk,&nbsp;Calum Hartley,&nbsp;Klaus Kessler,&nbsp;Pavlína Hlavatá,&nbsp;Hana Ošlejšková,&nbsp;Milan Brázdil,&nbsp;Daniel Joel Shaw","doi":"10.1002/aur.70010","DOIUrl":"10.1002/aur.70010","url":null,"abstract":"<p>To identify the neurocognitive mechanisms underpinning the social difficulties that characterize autism, we performed functional magnetic resonance imaging on pairs of autistic and non-autistic adults simultaneously whilst they interacted with one another on the iterated Ultimatum Game (iUG)—an interactive task that emulates the reciprocal characteristic of naturalistic interpersonal exchanges. Two age-matched sets of male–male dyads were investigated: 16 comprised an autistic Responder and a non-autistic Proposer, and 19 comprised non-autistic pairs of Responder and Proposer. Players' round-by-round behavior on the iUG was modeled as reciprocal choices, and dynamic functional connectivity (dFC) was measured to identify the neural mechanisms underpinning reciprocal behaviors. Behavioral expressions of reciprocity were significantly reduced in autistic compared with non-autistic Responders, yet no such differences were observed between the non-autistic Proposers in either set of dyads. Furthermore, we identified latent dFC states with temporal properties associated with reciprocity. Autistic interactants spent less time in brain states characterized by dynamic inter-network integration and segregation among the Default Mode Network and cognitive control networks, suggesting that their reduced expressions of social–emotional reciprocity reflect less efficient reconfigurations among brain networks supporting flexible cognition and behavior. These findings advance our mechanistic understanding of the social difficulties characterizing autism.</p>","PeriodicalId":131,"journal":{"name":"Autism Research","volume":"18 4","pages":"725-740"},"PeriodicalIF":5.3,"publicationDate":"2025-02-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/aur.70010","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143494869","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}