Article
Behavioral Sciences
Randeniya Roshini, Mattingley B. Jason, Garrido Marta
Summary: The study found no significant differences in auditory context adjustment between autistic and neurotypical individuals, but a positive correlation between context-dependent prediction errors and subjective reports of auditory sensitivities. This suggests that perceptual alterations may be more influenced by sensory sensitivities than autistic traits. Further research in EEG studies on autism may benefit from considering sensory sensitivities.
Article
Psychology, Multidisciplinary
Brett P. Andersen
Summary: According to the predictive-processing framework, both autism-spectrum conditions and psychosis may be related to a deviation in the weighting of sensory inputs, with autism giving excessively high weight and psychosis giving excessively low weight.
PERSPECTIVES ON PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Na Chen, Katsumi Watanabe, Charles Spence, Makoto Wada
Summary: The study found that individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) show specific characteristics in color-shape associations. Higher autistic traits are associated with more binding errors in incongruent colored-shape pairs, indicating a stronger association between colors and shapes.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Connor J. Haggarty, David J. Moore, Paula D. Trotter, Rachel Hagan, Francis P. McGlone, Susannah C. Walker
Summary: The study found that individuals with Autism Spectrum Conditions may have sensitivities to light touch. Adults with high AQ scores rated stroking touch on the palm as less pleasant than those with low AQ scores, while there was no effect of autism diagnosis on children's touch ratings. These results are discussed in terms of underlying sensory and cognitive factors.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2021)
Article
Psychology, Developmental
Han-yu Zhou, Han-xue Yang, Li-juan Shi, Simon S. Y. Lui, Eric F. C. Cheung, Raymond C. K. Chan
Summary: The study found that adolescents with higher levels of autistic traits had more difficulty distinguishing visual stimuli in time and were more likely to perceive sound-leading audiovisual pairings as simultaneous. Reduced visual temporal acuity, rather than auditory or multisensory temporal processing, was correlated with more atypical patterns of sensory responsiveness. Additionally, the positive correlation between visual TOJ thresholds and sensory avoidance was only present in adolescents with relatively high levels of autistic traits.
JOURNAL OF AUTISM AND DEVELOPMENTAL DISORDERS
(2021)
Article
Psychology, Multidisciplinary
Nancy Yang, Pete L. Hurd, Bernard J. Crespi
Summary: This study analyzed the relationships between video games and psychological and neurophysiological traits, and found that levels of autism and schizotypal traits affected individuals' video game usage and preferences. Female players with higher autism scores showed a preference for playing video games and exhibited relatively masculine genre preferences. On the other hand, positive schizotypy was associated with reduced video game use. Males, in general, played more video games, preferred action games, and had faster reaction and targeting times. Females, on the other hand, preferred puzzle and social simulation games. Faster reaction and targeting times were associated with gaming motives related to skill development and behavior building.
FRONTIERS IN PSYCHOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Psychology, Developmental
S. E. Schulz, R. A. Stevenson
Summary: This study found that sensory issues are closely associated with autistic traits in individuals with autism. However, there is lack of consistency between behavioral and questionnaire assessments of sensitivity, indicating they may assess different constructs.
JOURNAL OF AUTISM AND DEVELOPMENTAL DISORDERS
(2022)
Article
Psychiatry
Alex Bertrams, Myriam Zach
Summary: The study found that university students with autistic traits are not only more likely to experience social anxiety at present, but also have a higher risk of continuing to do so in the future.
FRONTIERS IN PSYCHIATRY
(2021)
Article
Psychology, Experimental
Charlotte F. Huggins, Isobel M. Cameron, Justin H. G. Williams
Summary: Research suggests that emotional self-awareness is not diminished in autism, and the emotional consistency task is an effective method to measure emotional self-awareness. Individuals with higher autistic traits tend to underestimate their emotional self-awareness, possibly due to greater metacognitive difficulties and negative self-beliefs.
JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY-GENERAL
(2021)
Article
Psychology, Developmental
Alexander Lischke, Harald J. Freyberger, Hans J. Grabe, Anett Mau-Moeller, Rike Pahnke
Summary: Social impairments are a core feature of autism-spectrum disorders, with variability attributed to the presence or absence of alexithymia. A study found that in healthy individuals, impairments in social functioning were due to alexithymic traits rather than autistic traits. This suggests that alexithymic traits, not autistic traits, impair prosocial behavior across the autism-spectrum.
JOURNAL OF AUTISM AND DEVELOPMENTAL DISORDERS
(2022)
Article
Psychology, Social
Phil Reed
Summary: The study investigated hallucinations in a non-clinical population and explored the impact of previous reinforcement and schizotypy on false perceptions. The findings suggest that situational factors such as previous experience and current context are important in generating false perceptions.
PERSONALITY AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES
(2023)
Article
Psychology, Social
Peter H. Donaldson, Soukayna Bekkali, George J. Youssef, Melissa Kirkovski, Talitha C. Ford, Peter G. Enticott
Summary: The relationship between cognitive empathy and emotional empathy traits is complex, with self-report measures showing stronger predictive power for autistic traits compared to lab-based measures. Visual attention behavior consistently predicts autism traits, highlighting its importance in studies to avoid erroneous conclusions.
PERSONALITY AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES
(2022)
Article
Psychiatry
Igor Nenadic, Tina Meller, Ulrika Evermann, Simon Schmitt, Julia-Katharina Pfarr, Ahmad Abu-Akel, Sarah Grezellschak
Summary: This study demonstrates the overlap and opposing features of autism spectrum traits and schizophrenia spectrum traits in German and French-Swiss samples. The findings confirm the co-existence of overlapping and diametrically opposed traits across the two spectra, providing a framework for multi-dimensional transdiagnostic characterization of ASD vs. SSD phenotypes.
SCHIZOPHRENIA RESEARCH
(2021)
Article
Psychology, Developmental
L. J. Rinaldi, J. Simner, S. Koursarou, J. Ward
Summary: Autistic traits are indeed elevated in individuals with misophonia, which is related to autism, sensory sensitivities, and the specific features of misophonia.
JOURNAL OF AUTISM AND DEVELOPMENTAL DISORDERS
(2023)
Article
Psychology, Multidisciplinary
Akie Saito, Wataru Sato, Sakiko Yoshikawa
Summary: Rapid detection of faces with emotional value is crucial in social interactions. This study found that individuals with high autistic traits show decreased detection performance for faces with negative value, which may contribute to their difficulty in making prompt responses in social situations.
FRONTIERS IN PSYCHOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Clinical Neurology
Kate Haining, Ruchika Gajwani, Joachim Gross, Andrew I. Gumley, Robin A. A. Ince, Stephen M. Lawrie, Frauke Schultze-Lutter, Matthias Schwannauer, Peter J. Uhlhaas
Summary: Schizophrenia is characterized by cognitive impairments that appear early in the course of the illness, with distinct cognitive subtypes present in both clinical high-risk for psychosis (CHR-P) and first-episode psychosis (FEP) individuals. Cognitive impairment is associated with poorer functional outcomes, and different cognitive subgroups predict functional but not clinical outcomes in CHR-P individuals, highlighting the importance of early intervention and understanding underlying developmental processes.
EUROPEAN ARCHIVES OF PSYCHIATRY AND CLINICAL NEUROSCIENCE
(2022)
Review
Psychiatry
Yohannes Gebreegziabhere Haile, Kassahun Habatmu, Andualem Derese, Hetta Gouse, Stephen M. Lawrie, Matteo Cella, Atalay Alem
Summary: This study systematically reviewed the psychometric properties of cognitive measures validated in people with severe mental disorders (SMDs) in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The results identified 23 unique measures, with the majority being performance-based. Despite validation in previous studies, there were doubts about the quality of the psychometric properties of these measures.
SOCIAL PSYCHIATRY AND PSYCHIATRIC EPIDEMIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
E. J. Kirkham, S. M. Lawrie, C. J. Crompton, M. H. Iveson, N. D. Jenkins, J. Goerdten, I. Beange, S. W. Y. Chan, A. McIntosh, S. Fletcher-Watson
Summary: This study investigated the willingness of NHS users in the UK to share their mental health data for research purposes. The findings showed that a majority of respondents were willing to share their mental health data. Higher levels of satisfaction with the NHS and personal experience of mental illness were associated with greater willingness to share mental health data.
Article
Psychology, Clinical
Andrew J. Watson, Annalisa Giordano, John Suckling, Thomas R. E. Barnes, Nusrat Husain, Peter B. Jones, Carl R. Krynicki, Stephen M. Lawrie, Shon Lewis, Naghmeh Nikkheslat, Carmine M. Pariante, Rachel Upthegrove, Bill Deakin, Paola Dazzan, Eileen M. Joyce
Summary: This study identified cognitive subtypes based on IQ in patients with early-phase schizophrenia-spectrum disorder. The compromised IQ subtype was associated with smaller brain volume and higher levels of low-grade inflammation markers. This adds validity to the existence of a neurodevelopmental subtype of schizophrenia.
PSYCHOLOGICAL MEDICINE
(2023)
Review
Psychology, Clinical
Edward Millgate, Olga Hide, Stephen M. Lawrie, Robin M. Murray, James H. MacCabe, Eugenia Kravariti
Summary: This study systematically reviewed and meta-analyzed the neuropsychological differences between patients with treatment-resistant schizophrenia (TRS) and treatment-responsive controls. The results showed small-to-moderate effect sizes in all domains, with the largest effect size observed in verbal memory and learning.
PSYCHOLOGICAL MEDICINE
(2022)
Article
Psychology, Clinical
M. J. Bosma, S. R. Cox, T. Ziermans, C. R. Buchanan, X. Shen, E. M. Tucker-Drob, M. J. Adams, H. C. Whalley, S. M. Lawrie
Summary: This study reveals that lower global white matter microstructure is associated with having PLEs in combination with distress, suggesting a direction of future research. Additionally, it replicates the finding that processing speed mediates the relationship between white matter microstructure and g-factor.
PSYCHOLOGICAL MEDICINE
(2023)
Review
Neurosciences
Povilas Karvelis, Colleen E. Charlton, Shona G. Allohverdi, Peter Bedford, Daniel J. Hauke, Andreea O. Diaconescu
Summary: In this paper, the authors review studies that use brain activity data to predict treatment response in major depressive disorder (MDD) and discuss methodological differences and limitations. They highlight the potential of theory-driven generative modeling and suggest improvements in model interpretability and generalizability.
NETWORK NEUROSCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Psychiatry
Philip J. Asherson, Lena Johansson, Rachel Holland, Megan Bedding, Andrew Forrester, Laura Giannulli, Ylva Ginsberg, Sheila Howitt, Imogen Kretzschmar, Stephen M. Lawrie, Craig Marsh, Caroline Kelly, Megan Mansfield, Clare McCafferty, Khuram Khan, Ulrich Muller-Sedgwick, John Strang, Grace Williamson, Lauren Wilson, Susan Young, Sabine Landau, Lindsay D. G. Thomson
Summary: This study investigated the efficacy of methylphenidate in reducing ADHD symptoms in young adult prisoners. The results showed that methylphenidate treatment did not significantly improve ADHD symptoms, indicating that routine use of this medication in this population is not supported. Further research is needed to evaluate the effects of higher dosing, treatment adherence, multi-modal treatments, and preventative interventions in the community.
BRITISH JOURNAL OF PSYCHIATRY
(2023)
Article
Psychiatry
Bianca Bianciardi, Ruchika Gajwani, Joachim Gross, Andrew I. Gumley, Stephen M. Lawrie, Melina Moelling, Matthias Schwannauer, Frauke Schultze-Lutter, Alessio Fracasso, Peter J. Uhlhaas
Summary: This study found that temporal and prosodic aspects of speech are not impaired in early-stage psychosis. Comparisons between different groups showed differences between participants meeting clinical high-risk for psychosis criteria and healthy controls or participants with affective disorders and substance abuse. Further research is needed to determine whether these abnormalities are present in sub-groups of CHR-P participants with elevated psychosis-risk.
EARLY INTERVENTION IN PSYCHIATRY
(2023)
Article
Anesthesiology
Marta Seretny, Liana Romaniuk, Heather Whalley, Kim Sladdin, Stephen Lawrie, Catherine Elizabeth Warnaby, Neil Roberts, Lesley Colvin, Irene Tracey, Marie Fallon
Summary: This study is the first to explore whether there is a brain-based vulnerability to chronic sensory CIPN. The study found that patients who later developed CIPN showed altered patterns of brain activity in sensory, motor, attentional, and affective regions. This suggests the possibility of a pre-existing vulnerability centered on brainstem regions of the descending pain modulatory system.
BRITISH JOURNAL OF ANAESTHESIA
(2023)
Article
Psychiatry
Rebecca A. Madden, Kimberley Atkinson, Xueyi Shen, Claire Green, Robert F. Hillary, Emma Hawkins, Emma Sage, Anca-Larisa Sandu, Gordon Waiter, Christopher McNeil, Mathew Harris, Archie Campbell, David Porteous, Jennifer A. Macfarlane, Alison Murray, Douglas Steele, Liana Romaniuk, Stephen M. Lawrie, Andrew M. McIntosh, Heather C. Whalley
Summary: This study aimed to investigate the associations between childhood trauma and brain structure. The results showed that childhood trauma was associated with reduced global brain volume, reduced cortical surface area in the frontal and parietal lobes, as well as reduced volumes in the hippocampus, thalamus, and nucleus accumbens.
EUROPEAN PSYCHIATRY
(2023)
Article
Behavioral Sciences
Povilas Karvelis, Martin P. Paulus, Andreea O. Diaconescu
Summary: Bringing precision to the understanding and treatment of mental disorders requires the development of computational assays that integrate computational models with cognitive tasks. However, many computational measures used in these assays suffer from poor psychometric properties, which may invalidate previous findings and undermine ongoing research efforts. This review examines the extent of this issue and provides recommendations on how to address these problems and translate computational assays to clinical practice.
NEUROSCIENCE AND BIOBEHAVIORAL REVIEWS
(2023)
Article
Psychology, Developmental
Niamh MacSweeney, Judith Allardyce, Amelia Edmondson-Stait, Xueyi Shen, Hannah Casey, Stella W. Y. Chan, Breda Cullen, Rebecca M. Reynolds, Sophia Frangou, Alex S. F. Kwong, Stephen M. Lawrie, Liana Romaniuk, Heather C. Whalley
Summary: Earlier pubertal timing is associated with higher rates of depressive disorders in adolescence. Neuroimaging studies report brain structural associations with both pubertal timing and depression. However, whether brain structure mediates the relationship between pubertal timing and depression remains unclear.
DEVELOPMENTAL COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Psychiatry
Nina MacKenzie, Daniel J. Smith, Stephen M. Lawrie, Andrew M. Rome, David McCartney
Summary: This study analyzed the outcomes of a residential rehabilitation program for substance misuse over a 4-year period. The results showed that attending the program was associated with increased rates of abstinence, reduced alcohol use, and improvements in psychological well-being and harm reduction.
Article
Psychiatry
Lingling Hua, Rick A. Adams, Tineke Grent-'t-Jong, Ruchika Gajwani, Joachim Gross, Andrew I. Gumley, Rajeev Krishnadas, Stephen M. Lawrie, Frauke Schultze-Lutter, Matthias Schwannauer, Peter J. Uhlhaas
Summary: Evidence suggests that early-stage psychosis involves impaired sensory attenuation in auditory and thalamic regions. However, these deficits may not predict clinical outcomes in individuals at high risk for psychosis.
