Repository logo
 

The effect of autistic traits on disembedding and mental rotation in neurotypical women and men

Published version
Peer-reviewed

Loading...
Thumbnail Image

Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Conson, Massimiliano 
Senese, Vincenzo Paolo 
Zappullo, Isa 
Baiano, Chiara 
Warrier, Varun 

Abstract

jats:titleAbstract</jats:title>jats:pRecent data has revealed dissociations between social and non-social skills in both autistic and neurotypical populations. In the present study, we investigated whether specific visuospatial abilities, such as figure disembedding and mental rotation, are differently related to social and non-social autistic traits, in neurotypical women and men. University students (N = 426) completed the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ), figure disembedding and mental rotation of two-dimensional figures tasks. AQ social skills (AQ-social) and attention-to-details (AQ-attention) subscales were used as measures of social and non-social autistic traits, respectively. Mental rotation was affected by a significant interaction between sex, social and non-social traits. When non-social traits were above the mean (+ 1 SD), no sex differences in mental rotation were found. Instead, below this value, sex differences depended on the social traits, with men on average outperforming women at middle-to-high social traits, and with a comparable performance, and with women on average outperforming men, at lower social traits. A small positive correlation between figure disembedding and social traits was observed in the overall sample. These results are interpreted in terms of the hyper-systemizing theory of autism and contribute to the evidence of individual differences in the cognitive style of autistic people and neurotypical people with autistic traits.</jats:p>

Description

Funder: Autism Research Trust


Funder: Templeton World Charitable Fund


Funder: NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre; doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100018956


Funder: National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research


Funder: Care East of England at Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust

Keywords

Article, /631/477, /631/477/2811, article

Journal Title

Scientific Reports

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

2045-2322

Volume Title

12

Publisher

Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Sponsorship
Wellcome Trust (214322\Z\18\Z)
Innovative Medicines Initiative (777394)