Quicker Exogenous Orienting and Slower Endogenous Orienting in Autistic People.
Shuting Li, Keitaro Machida, Emma L Burrows and 1 others
PMID 38446266WHAT IT FOUND
Autistic participants responded faster to valid external cues but slower to invalid internal cues than non-autistic people.
Attention differences were linked to age, ADHD, and anxiety symptoms rather than alertness, suggesting assessment should account for these co-occurring factors.
Key findings
01Autistic participants showed larger validity and benefit effects in the exogenous task, indicating faster response to valid external cues.
02Autistic participants showed a larger cost effect in the endogenous task, indicating slower response to invalid internal cues.
03Higher ADHD symptoms were associated with larger validity and cost effects in the exogenous task for both groups.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they found
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What it does not show
The sample was small (49 participants analysed). Participants were adolescents and adults with average non-verbal intelligence, so results may not apply to those with intellectual disability or younger children. The wide age range (9-43 years) makes it difficult to isolate developmental effects. The study did not find differences in pupil dilation, suggesting alertness was similar, but individual arousal profiles (hypo vs hyper) were not analysed.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret these reaction time differences as a direct cause of functional impairment or a target for intervention. The study measured attention orienting in a laboratory setting, not daily life skills, and the effect sizes were modest. Furthermore, the differences were heavily influenced by co-occurring ADHD and anxiety symptoms, which were higher in the autistic group, so the 'autism' effect itself may be secondary to these factors.