VU Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
NBT Analytics B.V., The Netherlands.
Autism. 2021 Jul;25(5):1433-1443. doi: 10.1177/1362361321990928. Epub 2021 Feb 19.
Everyone knows the feeling of letting one's mind wander freely in a quiet moment. The thoughts and feelings experienced in those moments have been shown to influence our well-being-and vice versa. In this study, we looked at which thoughts and feelings are being experienced by adults with autism spectrum disorder and compared them to adults without autism spectrum disorder. In total, 88 adults with autism spectrum disorder and 90 adults without autism spectrum disorder were asked to rest for 5 min with their eyes closed and let their mind wander. Directly after, they filled in the Amsterdam Resting-State Questionnaire, which probes what participants were feeling and thinking during the period of rest. We found that adults with autism spectrum disorder tend to think less about others, felt less comfortable, and had more disrupted thoughts during the rest compared to adults without autism spectrum disorder. Interestingly, autism spectrum disorder participants reporting lower levels of comfort during the rest also reported more autism spectrum disorder symptoms, specifically in social behaviors and skills, attention switching, and imagination. We propose to use the eyes-closed rest condition in combination with the Amsterdam Resting-State Questionnaire more widely to shed light on aberrant thoughts and feelings in brain disorders and to study the effect of therapeutic interventions.
每个人都知道在安静时刻让思绪自由飘荡的感觉。这些时刻所经历的想法和感受已被证明会影响我们的幸福感——反之亦然。在这项研究中，我们观察了自闭症谱系障碍患者和非自闭症谱系障碍患者所经历的哪些想法和感受，并对其进行了比较。总共有 88 名自闭症谱系障碍患者和 90 名非自闭症谱系障碍患者被要求闭眼休息 5 分钟，让他们的思绪自由飘荡。之后，他们立即填写了阿姆斯特丹静息状态问卷，该问卷探究了参与者在休息期间的感受和想法。我们发现，与非自闭症谱系障碍患者相比，自闭症谱系障碍患者在休息期间较少考虑他人，感到不太舒适，思维也更加混乱。有趣的是，在休息期间报告舒适度较低的自闭症谱系障碍患者也报告了更多的自闭症谱系障碍症状，特别是在社交行为和技能、注意力转换和想象力方面。我们建议更广泛地使用闭眼休息条件和阿姆斯特丹静息状态问卷，以揭示大脑障碍中的异常思维和感受，并研究治疗干预的效果。
