Social-Pragmatic Inferencing, Visual Social Attention and Physiological Reactivity to Complex Social Scenes in Autistic Young Adults.

Only 14 autistic and 14 controls were analysed, although 34 autistic and 37 controls initially participated, so the study is small and preliminary. 39 participants were excluded for unsuccessful eye-tracking recordings, so findings may apply mainly to autistic young adults who could sit still enough for reliable recording. Participants had no observed intellectual disabilities, so results do not represent the whole autism spectrum. Autism diagnoses were made in childhood and not reassessed in adulthood. The baseline was a between-task transition with some experimenter interaction, not a standard quiet rest baseline, which can affect heart-rate variability comparisons. The videos were short, passive, third-person social scenes in Finnish, so real-life conversation may require different attention and interaction skills. The study measured associations at one time and did not test an intervention, so it cannot show that changing visual attention or physiological regulation would improve social-pragmatic inferencing.

Funded by the Academy of Finland, the Eudaimonia Institute of the University of Oulu, Stiftelsen Alma och K. A. Snellman Säätiö, the Finnish Brain Foundation, the Rinnekoti Research Foundation, the Child Psychiatric Research Foundation, and the University of Oulu including Oulu University Hospital. The supplied text does not provide an author conflict-of-interest declaration.

Do not conclude that autistic young adults have a fixed social-pragmatic deficit or that teaching where to look will improve communication. Only 14 autistic and 14 controls were analysed, no intervention was tested, and some autistic participants performed clearly better than others in the same group.