Peng Xinyue, Li Tianbi, Liu Guangfang, Ni Wei, Yi Li
Peking-Tsinghua Center for Life Sciences, Peking University, No. 5 Yiheyuan Road, Beijing, 100871, China.
Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Peking University, No. 5 Yiheyuan Road, Beijing, 100871, China.
Cereb Cortex. 2024 May 2;34(13):104-111. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhae027.
Autism is characterized by atypical social communication styles. To investigate whether individuals with high autistic traits could still have effective social communication among each other, we compared the behavioral patterns and communication quality within 64 dyads of college students paired with both high, both low, and mixed high-low (HL) autistic traits, with their gender matched. Results revealed that the high-high (HH) autistic dyads exhibited atypical behavioral patterns during conversations, including reduced mutual gaze, communicational turns, and emotional sharing compared with the low-low and/or HL autistic dyads. However, the HH autistic dyads displayed enhanced interpersonal neural synchronization during social communications measured by functional near-infrared spectroscopy, suggesting an effective communication style. Besides, they also provided more positive subjective evaluations of the conversations. These findings highlight the potential for alternative pathways to effectively communicate with the autistic community, contribute to a deeper understanding of how high autistic traits influence social communication dynamics among autistic individuals, and provide important insights for the clinical practices for supporting autistic people.
自闭症的特征是具有非典型的社交沟通方式。为了研究具有高自闭症特质的个体之间是否仍能进行有效的社交沟通，我们比较了64对大学生的行为模式和沟通质量，这些大学生两两配对，具有高自闭症特质、低自闭症特质以及高低混合（HL）自闭症特质，且性别匹配。结果显示，与低-低和/或HL自闭症特质的配对相比，高-高（HH）自闭症特质的配对在对话中表现出非典型行为模式，包括相互注视减少、交流轮次减少以及情感分享减少。然而，通过功能近红外光谱测量，HH自闭症特质的配对在社交沟通中表现出更强的人际神经同步性，这表明存在一种有效的沟通方式。此外，他们对对话的主观评价也更为积极。这些发现凸显了与自闭症群体进行有效沟通的替代途径的潜力，有助于更深入地理解高自闭症特质如何影响自闭症个体之间的社交沟通动态，并为支持自闭症患者的临床实践提供重要见解。
