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Adults with Autism and Adults with Depression Show Similar Attentional Biases to Social-Affective Images

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Abstract

Individuals with ASD have increased rates of depression compared to the general population. Repetitive cognition is a core feature of ASD; in typically developing adults, repetitive cognition has been associated with attentional biases to negative emotional material and increased prospective depression risk. We compared adults with ASD to typically developing adults with depression and never-depressed controls, using a paired preference paradigm sensitive to affective biases in the context of repetitive cognition. Both clinical cohorts oriented faster to negative social-emotional material and spent less time overall on positive material, compared to healthy controls. Exploratory analyses within ASD revealed specific influences of repetitive behavior on patterns of affective bias. Findings help pinpoint susceptibilities in ASD that may confer increased risk for depression.

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Acknowledgments

Sources of support included the National Institute of Health: NIMH K01-MH103500, R01-MH096334, T32-MH18921; EKS NICHD U54HD083211; Vanderbilt Institute for Clinical and Translational Research support via Research Electronic Data Capture (REDCap; UL1 TR000445 from NCATS/NIH). Content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH. No funding body or source of support had a role in the study design, data collection, analysis, or interpretation, or writing of this manuscript. We would like to acknowledge Ms. Rachel Crist for her contribution to data collection and management.

Funding

This study was funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIMH K01-MH103500, R01-MH096334, T32-MH18921; EKS NICHD U54HD08321).

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Author notes

  1. Kathryn E. Unruh

    Present address: Schiefelbusch Institute for Life Span Studies and Kansas Center for Autism Research and Training (K-CART), University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Vanderbilt Brain Institute, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA

    Kathryn E. Unruh & James W. Bodfish

  2. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA

    James W. Bodfish

  3. Department of Hearing & Speech Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA

    James W. Bodfish & Katherine O. Gotham

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  1. Kathryn E. Unruh
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Contributions

KG conceived of the study and its design, led all data collection efforts, and helped to draft the manuscript. KU led the analysis and interpretation of data and drafting of the manuscript. JB assisted in the conception and design of the study and in the analysis and interpretation of data. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Katherine O. Gotham.

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This research was performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. All procedures described herein received ethical review and approval from the Institutional Review Board of Vanderbilt Medical Center (Behavioral Sciences Committee).

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study. All participants were 18 years of age or older and served as their own legal representatives; we assessed capacity to provide informed consent for all participants, and obtained informed consent in writing from all participants, with consent forms approved by the board named above.

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Unruh, K.E., Bodfish, J.W. & Gotham, K.O. Adults with Autism and Adults with Depression Show Similar Attentional Biases to Social-Affective Images. J Autism Dev Disord 50, 2336–2347 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-018-3627-5

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