Individuals with high levels of autistic traits exhibit impaired cognitive but not affective theory of mind and empathy-Reference-Cited by-同舟云学术

Individuals with high levels of autistic traits exhibit impaired cognitive but not affective theory of mind and empathy

Published:2024-02 Issue:3 Volume:13 Page:486-493
ISSN:2046-0252
Container-title:PsyCh Journal
language:en
Short-container-title:PsyCh Journal

Author:

Le Bei‐lin¹²^ORCID,Huang Yi‐hang¹²^ORCID,Wang Ling‐ling¹²^ORCID,Hu Hui‐xin¹²^ORCID,Wang Xuan¹²,Wang Yi¹²^ORCID,Wang Ya¹²^ORCID,Huang Jia¹²^ORCID,Lui Simon S. Y.³^ORCID,Chan Raymond C. K.¹²^ORCID

Affiliation:

1. Neuropsychology and Applied Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, CAS Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing China

2. Department of Psychology University of Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing China

3. Department of Psychiatry, School of Clinical Medicine The University of Hong Kong Hong Kong Special Administrative Region China

Abstract

AbstractTheory of mind (ToM) and empathy are considered key components of social cognition that are often impaired in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). However, it remains unclear whether individuals with high levels of autistic traits exhibit similar impairments in these two functions. This study examined the affective and cognitive domains of ToM and empathy in individuals with high levels of autistic traits. We recruited 84 participants with high levels and 78 participants with low levels of autistic traits to complete a set of self‐reported checklists and performance‐based tasks capturing affective and cognitive components of ToM and empathy. The results showed that participants with high levels of autistic traits exhibited significant impairments in cognitive but not in affective ToM and empathy compared with their counterparts with low levels of autistic traits. We also found that empathy impairments in people with high levels of autistic traits were confounded by alexithymia and depressive traits.

Publisher

Wiley

Link

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/pchj.727

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