Interoceptive Impairments Do Not Lie at the Heart of Autism or Alexithymia

摘要: Quattrocki and Friston (2014) argued that abnormalities in interoception-the process of representing one's internal physiological states-could lie at the heart autism, because critical role interoception plays ontogeny social-affective processes. This proposal drew criticism from proponents alexithymia hypothesis, who argue underlying interoceptive impairments are not a feature autism per se, but (a condition characterized by difficulties describing identifying own emotions), which commonly co-occurs with autism. Despite importance this debate for our understanding spectrum disorder (ASD), psychopathology, more generally, direct empirical evidence is scarce inconsistent. Experiment 1 examined sample 137 neurotypical (NT) individuals association among autistic traits, alexithymia, accuracy (IA) on standard heartbeat-tracking measure IA. In 2, IA was assessed 46 adults ASD (27 whom had clinically significant alexithymia) 48 NT adults. confirmed strong associations between traits yielded no to suggest either associated difficulties. Similarly, 2 provided adults, irrespective any co-occurring alexithymia. Bayesian analyses consistently supported null hypothesis. The observations pose challenge notions constitute core or least as far perception signals concerned. (PsycINFO Database Record