Our review on social interaction style in autism is finally published!
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
03.02.2026 15:28
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Our review on social interaction style in autism is finally published!
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
So to understand the brain excitation/inhibition, we must embrace the heterogeneity of autism and continue investigating these dynamic, task-dependent neural responses.
Bonus! We also show how crucial it is to look at the heterogeneity in the autistic group - some AUT individuals may show a massive passive-to-active change and others may not show it at all.
What does it mean? We think that the autistic brain may use a compensatory inhibitory process to handle task demands. So the atypicality in autism is not about what the brain is like, but how it responds under demanding conditions.
We found a key dynamic difference: NT adults showed no significant change in E/I balance between passive and active tasks. However, AUT participants showed significantly steeper slopes (increased inhibition) when engaging in the active task compared to passive viewing.
We studied the brain's balance of excitation and inhibition in #autistic (AUT) and #neurotypical (NT) adults using EEG, where a steeper '1/f slope'=higher inhibition. Since past studies at rest were mixed, we tested how this balance changes in an active, goal-directed task.
๐ขNew preprint:
๐ง๐ฎ๐๐ธ-๐ฟ๐ฒ๐น๐ฎ๐๐ฒ๐ฑ ๐ฎ๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ถ๐ผ๐ฑ๐ถ๐ฐ ๐๐๐ (1/๐ณ) ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐๐ถ๐๐ถ๐๐ ๐ถ๐ป #๐ฎ๐๐๐ถ๐๐บ
medrxiv.org/content/10.1...
w/ @mrgbcn.bsky.social, @mireiatorralba.bsky.social, and Claudia Alvarez Martin
๐ต๐๏ธListen to a notebookLM overview of this paper in simple words:
lenamatyjek.com/wp-content/u...
#EEG #Neuroscience
I just read this post by @autistica.org.uk helping people make sense of the Trump administration's claims regarding the link between #Tylenol / #paracetamol and #autism:
shorturl.at/LYe6Q
It's a great, easy-to-follow, and accurate summary of the claims vis-a-vis evidence. Definitely recommended!
You can view the (free) author accepted manuscript here: lenamatyjek.com/publications/
Thatโs why we also stress including autistic voices in research. Who better to define what a meaningful social interaction looks like than those who experience them? Let's build more inclusive and accurate science. #Autism #Neurodiversity #DoubleEmpathyProblem
A crucial insight from our work is that understanding social interactions requires shifting perspective. Moving beyond individual โdeficitsโ (especially in behaviours unrelated to outcomes) and focusing on relational dynamics gives a fuller, fairer picture of social experience.
Our takeaway: **different doesnโt mean deficient**. For example: while neurotypicals more eye contact may mean more connections with the other person, some autistic people may avoid eye contact but still form positive, meaningful connections with their interaction partners.
Crucially - not many studies related the behaviours to the interaction outcomes! Just because autistic people do something differently, it does not necessarily mean that it leads to less successful interactions, at least with other autistic individuals.
On the other hand, studies looking into behavioural differences show mixed results: we found both similarities (e.g., general turn-taking) and differences (e.g., reduced mutual gaze and backchanneling in autistic interactions) in social behaviours between the neurotypes.
Most support for the DEP (autistic individuals preferring interactions with other autistic rather than neurotypical peers) comes from studies that examine subjective ratings โ for example, perceived rapport, sense of connection, or willingness to meet again.
A model of social interaction combining social ability, social behaviours, and social interaction outcomes.
We reviewed 25 studies looking into interaction between autistic, non-autistic, or mix-neurotype dyads and we systematically mapped social behaviours (like turn-taking or mutual gaze) and interaction outcomes (like established rapport).
Historically, social challenges in #autism have often been framed as โdeficitsโ in autistic individuals. But what if (at least) some difficulties arise from differences in communication styles between neurotypes (autism vs neurotypical)? You may know this idea as the Double Empathy Problem (DEP).
I'm so excited to finally share work thatโs been a couple of years in the making!
See our new paper on *social interactions in #autism*, co-authored with Isabel Dziobek, @antoniahamilton.bsky.social & @thaliawheatley.bsky.social in @autisminadulthood.bsky.social ๐
www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1177/...
We're hiring a Postdoc!
Join us for 13 months of research on computational modelling of social dynamics!
We're looking for a candidate with a background in complex systems.
Please spread the word or get in touch if interested!
efzu.fa.em2.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...
It's finally here! Looking forward to two days of immersion in facial expressions research from around the world at Reading Emotions 2025 sites.google.com/site/reading...
#ReadEmo25
We're looking for a PhD candidate for a project investigating neural synchrony in #autism at @upf.edu ! ๐
๐ Location: Barcelona, Spain
๐
Duration: 3โ4 years, starting Winter term 2025/26
๐ About the project & application: See attachment ๐
Please share with anyone interested!
@mrgbcn.bsky.social
I'm excited to be joining Reading Emotions in a month! I hope to see many of you there :)
Register now for the 14th annual Reading Emotions on 26-27 June with a stellar interdisciplinary line-up of speakers to discuss โFacial expressions of emotionโ. Submit abstracts for short talks and apply for travel grants sites.google.com/site/reading.... We look forward to seeing you at #ReadEmo25
Yes! My next bigger idea is to help create a Catalonia-based participatory autism group, so that the community can co-create knowledge rather than just participate in it locally. Atm, Iโm looking for funding, options, and interested representativesโฆ let me know if you have ideas to share! :)
Thats exactly the thing! :)
Thatโs a good point. Iโm a researcher, so for us knowing more is always better- it makes the knowledge we generate more accurate and potentially more impactful. But youโre right- the world is more complex and we are not free of stigma and even discrimination. Thanks for the reminder!
Absolutely right. In some talks I get a push against neuroaffirmative language, in others even when I explicitly call for inclusive and non-ableist language I still get a criticism even for saying โatypicalityโ, and in someโฆ no one cares ๐ But I keep pushing - respect and inclusion are crucial!
Yeah, thatโs a big topic. Itโs amazing weโre understanding more and more about neurodiversity, but we donโt have good models for this complexity and overlaps. Thereโs a lot of promise in the RDOC approach, but itโs yet to show some breakthroughsโฆ
Ah, got it! Makes sense. I never thought of the word โspectrumโ as something necessarily linear, but now that I think of it, I canโt come up with any example that doesnโt have this connotation (light, electromagnetic, etc). Thanks for that! :)