Psyc-155A FINAL

How did Kanner stumble upon Autism?

He saw there were patients with mental issues he couldn’t categorize

Case: Don

• self-satisfied

• no affection when petted

• not glad to see parents

• a shell

Case: Paul

• behaved like people didn’t exist

• treated people as objects

• never looked at faces

Case: Virginia

• oblivious, in her head

• no friendliness or interest in people

• likes objects

Case: Alfred

• repetitive focus on things

• socially unaware

• fears mechanical noise

Case: Charles

• loves pictures of people more than people

• doesn’t like interaction with real people

Case: Elaine

• no abstractions

• frightened by vacuum

Kanner’s Sum of Autism

• Inability to relate

• Delayed language

• Great rote memory

• Literalness

• Dislikes loud noise

• Monotonous repetition

DSM-IV Autism Criteria

• Impairment by age 3

• high or low functioning based on IQ

Four Theories of Social Aspects of Autism

1. Theory of Mind (Sally-Anne Task)

2. Weak Central Coherence

3. Mirror System Account

4. Intense World Hypothesis

Theory of Mind (Autism)

• Key: Autism kids have delays and deficits in understanding that others can hold false beliefs

• Normal, autism, and down’s with verbal age of 5 could pass usually except autism at 20% pass rate

• Triangle and circles video demonstrate low ToM

Weak Central Coherence (Autism)

• The tendency to process local details over global details

• Fitting triangle in baby carriage and circle illusion example

• ASD people outperform on tasks with local processing

• Doesn’t fully explain social deficits

Broken Mirror Account (Autism)

• ASD may involve broken mirror neuron functioning, limiting understanding of others’ actions

• ASD kids mimicking others showed increased motor cortex but less parietal

• ASD kids shown video and told to imitate but struggled

• ASD kids struggle more with seeing open palm and doing opposite, meaning not a broken mirror per se

Intense World Hypothesis (Autism)

• ASD is hypersensitive to social stimuli and withdraw, leading to late ToM and social learning → beginning age 1

• ASD shows less social perception seeing faces vs blobs

What part of the brain is larger in ASD?

Amygdala

What can amygdala size predict in ASD?

Social communication impairment, age 3 size predicts age 6 impairment

Where do ASD adults look and avoid looking?

• Look at mouth

• Avoid eyes (coping strategy) → eyes may be too socially intense for amygdala

ASD individuals milliseconds of eye-contact vs normal

375ms vs 1200ms

4 Mentalizing System Regions

1. Posterior Cingulate Cortex (PCC)

2. DMPFC

3. TPJ/pSTS

4. Anterior Temporal Cortex (aTC)

3 Mirror System Regions

1. Rostral Inferior Parietal Lobule (rIPL)

2. Dorsal Premotor Cortex (dPMC)

3. Posterior Lateral Frontal Gyrus (pLFG)

Which system have an anti-correlation?

Mentalizing and Mirror Systems

Mentalizing Definition of Mind-reading

A cognitive, language-like process where you understand other by reasoning about their hidden mental states, so vignettes are great

Mirror Critique on Mentalizing Mindreading

Says you understand others by simulating their actions in your own motor system, not reasoning with mental states, so vignettes won’t work but IRL motions required to mimick

Mirror vs Mentalizing Core Tension

understanding other minds a top-down, narrative reasoning process (mentalizing), or a bottom-up, automatic bodily simulation process (mirror)

Weakness of Mentalizing Studies

Don’t use stimuli from everyday life

Weakness of Mirror Studies

No mind-reading goal or proof of it at all, only motor actions

Action Identification Theory Categories

High to Lower
Abstract to Concrete
Mental to Mechanical

Action Identification Theory

Individuals tend to prefer higher-level (abstract, goal-oriented explanations) identifications when available (as opposed to lower-level like concrete descriptions)

Moral Implications of Lower vs Higher Identifications

Lower = devoid of moral implications
Higher = greater moral implications

Suicide Note Example of Higher vs Lower Implications

Higher-level identifications less likely to go through with it than notes written in low-level identification