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Cited by 113Autism Spectrum Disorder ResearchDecision-Making and Behavioral EconomicsPsychosomatic Disorders and Their Treatments

Emotional decision-making in autism spectrum disorder: the roles of interoception and alexithymia

Open access
Shah, Punit, Catmur, Caroline, Bird, Geoffrey·2016·Molecular Autism
DOI 10.1186/s13229-016-0104-xPMC PMC5062918
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Abstract

The way choices are framed influences decision-making. These "framing effects" emerge through the integration of emotional responses into decision-making under uncertainty. It was previously reported that susceptibility to the framing effect was reduced in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) due to a reduced tendency to incorporate emotional information into the decision-making process. However, recent research indicates that, where observed, emotional processing impairments in ASD may be due to co-occurring alexithymia. Alexithymia is thought to arise due to impaired interoception (the ability to perceive the internal state of one's body), raising the possibility that emotional signals are not perceived and thus not integrated into decision-making in those with alexithymia and that therefore reduced framing effects in ASD are a product of co-occurring alexithymia rather than ASD per se. Accordingly, the present study compared framing effects in autistic individuals with neurotypical controls matched for alexithymia. Results showed a marked deviation between groups. The framing effect was, in line with previous data, significantly smaller in autistic individuals, and there was no relationship between alexithymia or interoception and decision-making in the ASD group. In the neurotypical group, however, the size of the framing effect was associated with alexithymia and interoception, even after controlling for autistic traits. These results demonstrate that although framing effects are associated with interoception and alexithymia in the neurotypical population, emotional and interoceptive signals have less impact upon the decision-making process in ASD.

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  • A growing literature has highlighted the importance of diagnosing comorbid alexithymia, which may explain some socioemotional and communicative deficits of autism and be worthy of targeted intervention.

    “A growing literature has highlighted the importance of diagnosing comorbid alexithymia, which may explain some of the socioemotional and communicative deficits of autism and be worthy of targeted intervention [78–83].”

    From A 'choice', an 'addiction', a way 'out of the lost': Exploring self-injury in autistic people without intellectual disability (2019) · cites this paper as [80]

    The Abstract (page not specified) says co-occurring alexithymia may account for affective impairments previously attributed to autism, and the Discussion recommends assessing alexithymia to distinguish its contribution from that of autism. The paper does not specifically attribute communicative deficits to alexithymia or recommend targeted intervention for it. (LLM, conf=0.86)

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  • The TAS-20 has never undergone a thorough examination as to whether autistic individuals understand items in the same way as non-autistic people.

    “Another instance is the TAS-20, which despite being robustly used in autism research (see, for instance, [80, 82, 141]), has never undergone a thorough examination (e.g. [118, 119]) as to whether autistic individuals understand items in the same way as non-autistic people”

    From A 'choice', an 'addiction', a way 'out of the lost': Exploring self-injury in autistic people without intellectual disability (2019) · cites this paper as [80]

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1 of the 73 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Research works printed but not linked: 2

  1. [42]Wechsler D Wechsler adult intelligence scale—third edition. Administration and scoring manual 1997 San Antonio Psychol. Corp
  2. [43]Wechsler D WASI-II: Wechsler abbreviated scale of intelligence—second edition 2013 San Antonio Psychol. Corp

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Authors
Shah, P., Catmur, C., & Bird, G.
Affiliations
  • University of London (GB)
  • King's College London (GB)
Corresponding author
Shah, Punit
ORCID
Venue
Molecular Autism
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
2016-10-13
Volume
7
Issue
1
Pages
43-43
ISSN
2040-2392 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1186/s13229-016-0104-x
PMC
PMC5062918
OpenAlex
W2529479083
Cited by
113
References
73
Citations by year
2026: 4 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 14 · 2023: 16 · 2022: 13 · 2021: 14 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 12 · 2018: 14 · 2017: 7
FWCI
6.93
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
cc-by
Locations
  • Molecular Autism (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Research Portal (King's College London) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • University of Birmingham Research Portal (University of Birmingham) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • Medical Research Council
  • Baily Thomas Charitable Fund
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Autism Spectrum Disorder Research
  • Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › General Decision Sciences › Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Psychosomatic Disorders and Their Treatments
Keywords
autism spectrum disorder, emotional decision-making, framing effects, interoception, alexithymia, decision making under uncertainty, emotional processing, autistic traits, neurotypical comparison
MeSH terms
Autism Spectrum Disorder, Adult, Affective Symptoms, Decision Making, Female, Frustration, Happiness, Humans, Intelligence Tests, Male, Case-Control Studies, Interoception

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