Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
Department of Psychology, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL, USA.
J Autism Dev Disord. 2024 Sep;54(9):3376-3386. doi: 10.1007/s10803-023-06038-y. Epub 2023 Jul 1.
The purpose of this study is to investigate if feedback related negativity (FRN) can capture instantaneous elevated emotional reactivity in autistic adolescents. A measurement of elevated reactivity could allow clinicians to better support autistic individuals without the need for self-reporting or verbal conveyance. The study investigated reactivity in 46 autistic adolescents (ages 12-21 years) completing the Affective Posner Task which utilizes deceptive feedback to elicit distress presented as frustration. The FRN event-related potential (ERP) served as an instantaneous quantitative neural measurement of emotional reactivity. We compared deceptive and distressing feedback to both truthful but distressing feedback and truthful and non-distressing feedback using the FRN, response times in the successive trial, and Emotion Dysregulation Inventory (EDI) reactivity scores. Results revealed that FRN values were most negative to deceptive feedback as compared to truthful non-distressing feedback. Furthermore, distressing feedback led to faster response times in the successive trial on average. Lastly, participants with higher EDI reactivity scores had more negative FRN values for non-distressing truthful feedback compared to participants with lower reactivity scores. The FRN amplitude showed changes based on both frustration and reactivity. The findings of this investigation support using the FRN to better understand emotion regulation processes for autistic adolescents in future work. Furthermore, the change in FRN based on reactivity suggests the possible need to subgroup autistic adolescents based on reactivity and adjust interventions accordingly.
本研究旨在探究反馈相关负波（FRN）是否可以捕捉到自闭症青少年即时的情绪反应升高。对反应性的测量可以让临床医生更好地支持自闭症患者，而无需依赖自我报告或口头表达。本研究调查了 46 名自闭症青少年（12-21 岁）在完成情感波斯纳任务时的反应性，该任务使用欺骗性反馈来引发挫败感表现出的痛苦。FRN 事件相关电位（ERP）作为情绪反应的即时定量神经测量。我们使用 FRN、后续试验中的反应时和情绪失调量表（EDI）反应得分，将欺骗性和令人痛苦的反馈与真实但令人痛苦的反馈以及真实且不令人痛苦的反馈进行了比较。结果表明，与真实无压力反馈相比，欺骗性反馈的 FRN 值更为负。此外，平均而言，令人痛苦的反馈会导致后续试验中的反应时更快。最后，与反应得分较低的参与者相比，EDI 反应得分较高的参与者在面对真实无压力的反馈时，FRN 值更为负。FRN 幅度的变化基于挫折感和反应性。这项研究的结果支持在未来的工作中使用 FRN 来更好地理解自闭症青少年的情绪调节过程。此外，基于反应性的 FRN 变化表明，可能需要根据反应性对自闭症青少年进行亚组划分，并相应地调整干预措施。
