Department of Psychology, Rikkyo University, Tokyo, Japan.
Department of Psychology, Faculty of Human Sciences, Sophia University, Tokyo, Japan.
Autism Res. 2023 Sep;16(9):1750-1764. doi: 10.1002/aur.2979. Epub 2023 Jul 6.
People with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or higher levels of autistic traits have atypical characteristics in sensory processing. Atypicalities have been reported for proprioceptive judgments, which are tightly related to internal bodily representations underlying position sense. However, no research has directly investigated whether self-bodily representations are different in individuals with ASD. Implicit hand maps, estimated based on participants' proprioceptive sensations without sight of their hand, are known to be distorted such that the shape is stretched along the medio-lateral hand axis even for neurotypical participants. Here, with the view of ASD as falling on a continuous distribution among the general population, we explored differences in implicit body representations along with autistic traits by focusing on relationships between autistic traits and the magnitudes of the distortions in implicit hand maps (N ~ 100). We estimated the magnitudes of distortions in implicit hand maps both for fingers and hand surfaces on the dorsal and palmar sides of the hand. Autistic traits were measured by questionnaires (Autism Spectrum [AQ] and Empathy/Systemizing [EQ-SQ] Quotients). The distortions in implicit hand maps were replicated in our experimental situations. However, there were no significant relationships between autistic traits and the magnitudes of the distortions as well as within-individual variabilities in the maps and localization performances. Consistent results were observed from comparisons between IQ-matched samples of people with and without a diagnosis of ASD. Our findings suggest that there exist perceptual and neural processes for implicit body representations underlying position sense consistent across levels of autistic traits.
自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）或具有较高自闭症特质的人在感官处理方面具有非典型特征。已经报道了本体感受判断的异常，本体感受判断与位置感所基于的内部身体表象密切相关。然而，尚无研究直接调查 ASD 个体的自我身体表象是否不同。基于参与者的本体感受而无需看到他们的手来估计的隐含手部图，已知会被扭曲，使得形状沿着手的中侧轴伸展，即使对于神经典型的参与者也是如此。在这里，我们将 ASD 视为在一般人群中的连续分布，通过关注自闭症特质与隐含手部图扭曲程度之间的关系，探索了自闭症特质与隐含身体表象之间的差异（N~100）。我们估计了隐含手部图中手指和手部表面的扭曲程度，这些手部图位于手的背面和手掌侧。自闭症特质通过问卷（自闭症谱系[AQ]和同理心/系统思维[EQ-SQ]商数）进行测量。隐含手部图的扭曲在我们的实验情况下得到了复制。然而，自闭症特质与扭曲程度以及地图和定位表现的个体内变异性之间没有显著关系。在 ASD 诊断和无诊断的个体的 IQ 匹配样本之间的比较中观察到了一致的结果。我们的研究结果表明，存在与位置感相关的隐含身体表象的知觉和神经过程，这些过程在自闭症特质的各个水平上都是一致的。
