Self-Report and Brain Indicators of Impaired Emotion Regulation in the Broad Autism Spectrum.
Kristel De Groot, Jan W Van Strien
PMID 28447304WHAT IT FOUND
Brain measures showed no difference between low and high autistic traits when asked to reinterpret emotional pictures.
Self-report did: people with more autistic traits reported fewer helpful and more unhelpful emotion regulation strategies, with anger standing out.
Key findings
01People with higher autistic traits reported using fewer helpful and more unhelpful emotion regulation strategies than people with lower autistic traits.
02The link between higher autistic traits and helpful emotion regulation was clearest for anger, not fear or sadness.
03Brain wave responses did not differ between low and high autistic trait groups for emotional picture viewing or reinterpretation.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The participants were psychology students, not people diagnosed with autism, so this cannot be treated as a study of clinical autism. The groups were made by splitting autistic trait scores at the middle, so the study compares trait levels, not diagnostic categories. The study measured people at one time, so it cannot show that autistic traits cause emotion regulation problems. The brain task did not check whether participants successfully used the reinterpretation strategy. The brain wave result for reinterpretation was unexpected and was affected by the order of the blocks. Self-report emotion regulation was not linked to communication, occupational, or physical outcomes.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that a brain marker shows impaired emotion regulation in autism. The brain measure did not differ between groups, and the participants were students without diagnosed autism.