1. Autistic traits and perspective taking in youths with anorexia nervosa: an exploratory clinical and eye tracking study
- Author
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Fantozzi, Pamela, Billeci, Lucia, Muratori, Pietro, Maestro, Sandra, Muratori, Filippo, Chakrabarti, Bhismadev, and Calderoni, Sara
- Abstract
Anorexia nervosa (AN) and Autism Spectrum Disorders share a number of common features, including social and emotional difficulties. In this framework, previous investigations have analyzed autistic traits and empathic abilities of AN patients with mixed results. In the current study, we assess in AN adolescents compared to healthy control peers: (i) autistic traits and empathic abilities using self-report measures; (ii) perspective-taking ability (a process related to cognitive empathy, i.e. the capacity to understand the emotional/mental experiences of others) using an eye-tracking metric from the ‘director task’.Results indicated that autistic traits were over-represented in the group of adolescents with AN. The eye-tracking based measure of perspective-taking ability showed longer response latencies in AN subjects compared to the control sample, which may be an expression of the need for more time to “put themselves in the shoes of others”. If confirmed, these findings suggest that tailored interventions focusing on perspective taking’s abilities may be implemented in AN subjects.
- Published
- 2024
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