Associations Between Autism and Self-Reported Dimensions of Interoception.

This study looked at how autistic people and those with autistic traits notice and understand signals from their bodies (like heartbeat, hunger, or pain). Researchers found that autistic people tend to have more negative feelings about their body signals. People with more autistic traits paid more attention to body signals but were less accurate at detecting them and felt more negatively about them. This helps us understand how autism affects the way people experience their bodies.

This cross-sectional study examined relationships between autism and self-reported interoceptive dimensions among 519 participants, including 232 autistic individuals. The research investigated three dimensions of interoception: accuracy (ability to detect bodily signals), attention (focus on bodily signals), and evaluation (interpretation of bodily signals). Results indicated that autistic participants had more negative interpretations of bodily signals compared to non-autistic participants. In the general population sample, higher autistic traits were associated with increased interoceptive attention, reduced interoceptive accuracy, and more negative interoceptive evaluation.

The authors highlight interoceptive evaluation as a priority area for future autism research, suggesting this dimension may be particularly relevant to understanding autism-related differences in bodily signal processing.

Findings suggest clinicians should assess how autistic clients interpret bodily signals, as negative interoceptive evaluation may contribute to anxiety and other challenges. Interventions targeting more balanced interpretation of bodily sensations may be beneficial. The dimensional relationship between autistic traits and interoception indicates relevance beyond formal autism diagnoses.

Study relies on self-reported measures which may not reflect objective interoceptive abilities. Cross-sectional design prevents causal inferences. Limited information available about study methodology, sample characteristics, and potential confounding variables from the abstract.

Despite a wealth of research on autism and interoception, there is not a clear consensus about which dimensions of interoception (if any) are related to autism. This study explored whether self-reported interoceptive accuracy, attention and evaluation are related to autism diagnosis and autistic traits. We analysed questionnaire responses from 519 participants, including 232 autistic participants. We found that people with an autism diagnosis had more negative interpretations of their bodily signals than people without an autism diagnosis, and increasing autistic traits in a general population sample were associated with higher interoceptive attention, lower interoceptive accuracy and higher negative interoceptive evaluation.

Our findings suggest that interoceptive evaluation should be a priority for future research.Lay AbstractAutism is thought to be linked to differences in the way people notice, process and understand signals coming from inside of their bodies. This study explored how both autistic traits and autism diagnoses are associated with the processing of bodily signals. We found that among 519 participants, having more autistic traits meant that people paid more attention to body signals, reported lower accuracy at detecting them and had more negative interpretations of those signals. Autism diagnoses were associated with more negative interpretations of bodily signals.