Self-Bias and Self-Related Mentalizing are Unaltered in Adolescents with Autism.

This research looked at how well teenagers with autism process information about themselves compared to others. The study found that teens with autism had the same ability as other teens to focus on self-related information and understand their own thoughts. However, they did struggle more with understanding what other people might be thinking or feeling. This suggests that autism mainly affects understanding others, not understanding oneself.

This study compared self-related processing and mentalizing abilities in 30 adolescents with autism and 26 matched controls. Researchers examined multiple levels of self-processing: visual search and trait adjective tasks for self-bias, feeling-of-knowing task for self-related mentalizing, and animations task for other-related mentalizing. Results confirmed previous findings of reduced other-related mentalizing in autism. However, adolescents with autism showed no differences in first-order or second-order self-bias, nor in their ability to mentalize about their own thoughts compared to controls.

These findings challenge earlier claims of altered self-related information processing in autism, suggesting that difficulties may be specific to understanding others' mental states rather than processing self-related information.

Results suggest interventions should focus on theory of mind and understanding others rather than self-awareness skills. Self-related processing abilities appear intact in autism, indicating preserved strengths that could be leveraged in therapeutic approaches targeting social cognition difficulties.

Sample size is relatively small (56 total participants). Study type is not specified in the metadata. The research focuses specifically on adolescents, limiting generalizability to other age groups. Multiple comparisons across different tasks may increase risk of statistical errors.

The self is a multidimensional concept that can be represented at a pre-reflective (first-order) level, at a deeper, reflective level (second-order), or even at a meta-level (representing one's own thoughts, i.e. self-related mentalizing). Since self-related processing and mentalizing are crucial for social cognition, both constructs have been researched in individuals with autism, who experience persistent socio-communicative difficulties. Some studies suggested autism-related reductions of the self-bias, i.e. tendency to preferentially process self-related content; while others observed a decreased ability to mentalize on one's own thoughts in autism. However, prior research examined distinct levels of self-related processing in isolation, in the context of separate studies.

In this investigation, we directly compared self-bias, self- and other-related mentalizing within the same sample of adolescents with and without autism, to identify which of these are altered in this condition. Thirty adolescents with autism and 26 age- and IQ-matched controls performed a visual search task (first-order self-bias), a trait adjectives task (second-order self-bias), a feeling-of-knowing task (self-related mentalizing) and the Frith-Happé animations task (other-related mentalizing). Parents also completed two questionnaires (i.e. SRS, SCQ) assessing the adolescent's degree of autism traits.

Our findings replicated previous research showing reduced other-related mentalizing in autism. However, we did not find any difference between adolescents with and without autism in terms of first- or second-order self-bias, nor in the ability to mentalize on one's own thoughts. In line with recent investigations, our results do not support earlier claims of altered self-related information processing in autism.