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

Adults with Autism and Adults with Depression Show Similar Attentional Biases to Social-Affective Images.
J Autism Dev Disord. 2018 Jun 07;:
Authors: Unruh KE, Bodfish JW, Gotham KO
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.
PMID: 29882107 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

Source: Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders - June 7, 2018 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Unruh KE, Bodfish JW, Gotham KO Tags: J Autism Dev Disord Source Type: research