Partner-dependent communication without dynamic adaptation in autism.

The task was computer-mediated and had no direct verbal or face-to-face contact. It may not capture real conversation with gaze, timing, and social pressure. The measured child-directed adjustment was small, 94.48 ms out of about 1,850 ms, and was largely unnoticed by participants. The fixed visible problem space reduced alignment demands and may have favoured consistency and spatial reasoning. It may not capture unpredictable social interactions. Social anxiety effects were not prominent, likely because the remote, familiar setting reduced social pressures. Participants were from an established research pool. The autism group was defined by prior clinical diagnosis and telephone screening rather than a current clinical sample.

Funding came from an NWO Gravitation Grant, an European Research Council Advanced Grant, an ERC Starting Grant to one author, and NextGenerationEU through the Recovery and Resilience Plan for Slovakia. The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest.

Do not conclude that autistic adults lack social motivation or cannot adjust communication. They showed the same initial child-directed adjustments as non-autistic adults, and the difference was reduced updating as evidence accumulated.