Autistic traits impair attentional disengagement from threatening faces:
An ERP study
Abstract
The ability to prioritize threatening stimuli in attention has been
well-documented, but its manifestation in individuals with high autistic
traits remains debated. This study used a dot-probe task and
event-related potentials (ERPs) to examine early (N2pc) and late (SPCN)
stages of attentional processing in individuals with high (HAT) and low
(LAT) autistic traits. The results revealed no significant group
differences in early attentional orienting, as indicated by similar N2pc
responses. However, a divergence was observed in the later stages, with
the HAT group showing a sustained attention to threat, evidenced by a
prominent SPCN. This suggests that individuals with high autistic traits
have difficulty disengaging from threatening stimuli. These findings
contribute to our understanding of social threat processing in autism
spectrum disorder and underscore the importance of targeting attentional
control in interventions for this population.