Search

RIASSUNTO. Scopo. È noto come l'anoressia nervosa (AN) e il disturbo dello spetto autistico (ASD) condividano alcuni tratti, come la rigidità mentale e l'attenzione per i dettagli, che potrebbero essere diffusi a livello familiare. Questo studio ha lo scopo di confrontare la distribuzione di tratti autistici in genitori con figlie affette da disturbo alimentare ED (anoressia - AN o bulimia nervosa - BN) con genitori appartenenti a un gruppo di controllo. Metodi. Sono stati coinvolti 40 genitori con figlie affette da disturbo alimentare (60% con anoressia, 40% con bulimia nervosa) e 33 genitori di controllo. Tutti i genitori hanno compilato questionari specifici riguardanti il quoziente di spettro autistico (AQ) e le stime cognitive (CET). Inoltre, sono stati somministrati EAT-26 e SCL-90-R al fine di escludere la presenza di disturbi psichiatrici o alimentari nel gruppo sperimentale. Risultati. Le analisi su AQ mostrano una differenza tra i due gruppi per un tratto autistico specifico, evidenziando una riduzione significativa dell'attenzione per i dettagli nel gruppo sperimentale (ED), in particolare nei genitori di figlie affette da AN. Discussione. Questi dati suggeriscono una preferenza per un'elaborazione globale delle informazioni nei genitori AN in contrasto a quanto trovato in pazienti con AN. La presenza di aspetti depressivi, ansiosi e di disturbi alimentari è stata esclusa nei genitori nel gruppo sperimentale tramite SCL-90-R e EAT-26. Infine, la capacità di prendere decisioni, misurata dal CET, è stata esclusa dalle nostre analisi. Conclusione. Nei genitori con figlie affette da AN emerge una peculiare preferenza per un'elaborazione cognitiva globale, suggerendo il ruolo dell'attenzione per i dettagli come nuovo fattore da considerare nelle valutazione cliniche di pazienti con AN e nei loro familiari. Considerando i limiti dello studio, ulteriori approfondimenti in merito sono necessari, Aim. Anorexia nervosa (AN) and autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) may share traits such as mental rigidity and attention to detail, some of which might be familial. We aimed to investigate the distribution of autistic traits among parents of daughters suffering from eating disorders (anorexia or bulimia nervosa), comparing them with control parents. Methods.As a whole, 40 parents of women with eating disorders (60% AN, 40% BN) and 33 control parents were recruited and accepted an examination through the administration of the autism spectrum quotient (AQ). The effects of eating disorders and other psychiatric traits were excluded by using EAT-26 and SCL-90-R respectively, while decision making skills were ruled out by using the cognitive estimation task (CET). Results. AQ scores revealed a between-groups difference for a specific trait, showing a reduction in attention to detail among ED family members, especially AN parents. Discussion.These findings suggest a preference for global processing in AN parents in contrast to what found in AN patients. Our findings support the role of a candidate trait in AN parents, supporting the need of further studies on the role of attention to detail as a family marker. Conclusion. This study identified a global processing preference in AN parents, suggesting a role of attention to detail as an ideal marker to be included in a wider clinical assessment for AN patients and their families. Considering some study limitations, further research is needed

Social exclusion is felt as a threat to the human “need to belong” and activates the brain areas related to physical pain. Social exclusion has been proven to drive aggressive behaviours, to create emotional numbness and it also seems to facilitate implicit processing of positive emotions and enhance re-inclusion finalised behaviours (so-called “tuning to positivity”). These effects appear to be mediated by the individual’s empathy. Nevertheless, the effects of social exclusion on emotions and social information processing are unclear. This study aims to test whether exclusion can improve social processing (i.e. emotion recognition and gaze direction discrimination), and whether this can be modulated by empathy. Young adult participants (M = 20; F = 20) were asked to identify either the emotional expression (happy, sad, angry, fearful) or gaze direction (direct vs. averted gaze) of faces after social exclusion (or inclusion) through the Cyberball paradigm. Empathy had previously been estimated through the Empathy Quotient questionnaire. Experimental results on accuracy show that social exclusion makes gaze direction discrimination worse, but not emotion identification. Interestingly, higher empathy was associated with a stronger enhancement of social processing in excluded rather than included participants. Besides, these effects are also modulated by participants’ gender: male participants’ accuracy is lower when they are socially excluded, while female participants tend to show higher accuracy when excluded. This study brings new evidence indicating that social exclusion has an effect only on one of the two crucial social dimensions (gaze direction discrimination, but not emotion identification). Interestingly, participants’ empathy and gender also modulate these effects in different ways. The modulatory effects of participants’ empathy suggest that more empathic people are more sensitive to rejection and pay much more attention to social information. The moderati

The present study aimed at investigating the relation between field dependence- independence, measured by means of the Embedded Figure Test (EFT), and performance on the Simon task, which is usually employed to assess cognitive control processes. 20 participants classified as field-dependent and 20 participants classified as field-independent were administered a Simon task in which they had to emit a lateralized response according to the color of a left or right- presented stimulus by ignoring its location. Results showed a larger Simon effect (i.e., faster responses when stimulus and response locations spatially corresponded than when they did not correspond) for participants classified as field dependent than for those classified as field independent. The analysis of the Simon effect as a function of correspondence sequence showed no difference between the two groups. These results seem to suggest that the ability to deal with a conflict within a trial and the ability to modify performance based on the conflict experienced in a prior trial depend on different mechanisms. Our data suggest that only the first ability is related to the cognitive style of field dependence-independence.

The aim of the present study was to investigate the processing of the emotional and non-emotional facial expression and facial features of unfamiliar faces in individuals with Asperger's syndrome (AS) and High-Functioning Autism (HFA). To this end, we tested 14 Adults with AS and HFA and 12 typically developing individuals, matched for age and education level, in a recognition task of faces in which internal features (e.g., eyes size), emotional and non-emotional facial expressions could or could not have been manipulated. Participants were asked first to undergo the recognition task and then a change detection task of the manipulation. Results show not only a face recognition impairment (lower accuracy) in the autistic group, but also a difference in the processing of facial changeable and unchangeable features, and between emotional and non-emotional expressions.