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Self-Conscious Emotion Processing in Autistic Adolescents: Over-Reliance on Learned Social Rules During Tasks with Heightened Perspective-Taking Demands May Serve as Compensatory Strategy for Less Reflexive Mentalizing

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Abstract

Autistic adolescents experience a secondary wave of social cognitive challenges which impact interpersonal success. We investigated self-conscious emotion (SCE) processing in autistic and neurotypical adolescents. Participants watched videos of peers acting embarrassed and proud and rated inferred and empathic SCEs. We compared intensity ratings across groups and conducted correlations with social cognitive abilities and autistic features. Autistic adolescents recognized SCEs and felt empathic SCEs; however, they made atypical emotion attributions when perspective-taking demands were high, which more strongly reflected the situational context. Atypical attributions were associated with perspective-taking difficulties and autistic feature intensity. An over-reliance on contextual cues may reflect a strict adherence to learned social rules, possibly compensating for less reflexive mentalizing, which may underlie interpersonal challenges in ASD.

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Notes

  1. The authors use the term “autistic” to reflect identity-first language, which is, at present, the preferred terminology of many self-advocates.

  2. Here, the term “atypical” represents “neurodivergent”. It is a comparative term, relative to “neurotypical”. The term “atypical” does not represent “incorrect”, just like the term “neurotypical” does not represent “correct”.

  3. Here, the term “appropriately” reflects expected behaviors, based on neurotypical definitions of social standards.

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Acknowledgements

This research was part of a doctoral dissertation by KFJ. KFJ was supported by an Autism Speaks Dennis Weatherstone Predoctoral Fellowship #9539, and JHP was supported by an R01 MH107418. The authors would like to thank Drs. Susan Bookheimer and Mirella Dapretto for their valuable feedback on task design; Drs. Elliot Berkman, Laura Lee McIntyre, and Pranjal Mehta for their helpful advice throughout the project and comments on earlier drafts; Michael Lewis for conducting the ADOS appointments; Scott Watrous and the LCNI staff for assisting in running MRI scans; Chuck Theobold for his coding expertise; Kellan Kadooka, Talyn Streight, Lana Huizar, Ryan Godard, Cameron Hansen, and David Muns for aiding in participant recruitment, data collection, and data entry; the many volunteers who served as actors in the video stimuli; Alison Cruthers, Daryl Ford, and the research staff at the University of Oregon’s White Stag Building for use of their lab space and serving as weekend supervisors; the University of Oregon’s Prevention Science Institute for use of their lab space for ADOS appointments; and the University of Oregon’s Developmental Social Neuroscience lab for their feedback. The authors would also like to give a special thanks to the teens and families who participated in this study and made this research possible. We are incredibly grateful; thank you!

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  1. Department of Psychology, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, 97403-1227, USA

    Kathryn F. Jankowski & Jennifer H. Pfeifer

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  1. Kathryn F. Jankowski
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  2. Jennifer H. Pfeifer
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Contributions

KFJ and JHP designed the study; KFJ created the stimuli; KFJ collected the data; KFJ and JHP analyzed the data; KFJ wrote the first draft of the manuscript, and KFJ and JHP edited subsequent versions of the manuscript. Both authors read and approved of the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Jennifer H. Pfeifer.

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Jankowski, K.F., Pfeifer, J.H. Self-Conscious Emotion Processing in Autistic Adolescents: Over-Reliance on Learned Social Rules During Tasks with Heightened Perspective-Taking Demands May Serve as Compensatory Strategy for Less Reflexive Mentalizing. J Autism Dev Disord 51, 3514–3532 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-020-04808-6

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