Binocular rivalry in autistic and socially anxious adults
Keywords
binocular rivalry, autism, social anxiety, social anxiousness, switch rates
Abstract
Background: Social anxiousness is a pervasive symptom in both social anxiety disorder and autism spectrum conditions. Binocular rivalry, which occurs when different images are presented to each eye, has been used to explore how visual and cognitive processing differs across various clinical diagnoses. Previous studies have separately explored whether individuals with autism or anxiety experience binocular rivalry in ways that are different from neurotypical individuals.
Methods: We applied rivalry paradigms that are similar to those used in previous studies of autism and general anxiety to individuals experiencing symptoms of social anxiousness at clinical or subclinical levels. We also incorporated rivalrous stimuli featuring neutral and emotional facial valances to explore potential overlap of social processing components in social anxiety and autism.
Results: We hypothesized that higher levels of social anxiousness would increase binocular rivalry switch rates and that higher levels of autistic traits would decrease switch rates. However, stimulus condition did not affect switch rates in either diagnostic group, and switch rate was not significantly predictive of dimensional measures of either autism or social anxiety.
Discussion: This may suggest a common mechanism for atypical visual cognition styles previously associated with social anxiety and autism. Alternatively, differences in switch rates may only emerge at higher trait levels than reported by the participants in our studies. Furthermore, these findings may be influenced by sex differences in our unique sample.
Original Publication Citation
Kamhout S, Olivier JM, Morris J, Brimhall HR, Black BL, Gabrielsen TP, South M, Lundwall RA and Nielsen JA (2023) Binocular rivalry in autistic and socially anxious adults. Front. Psychiatry 14:1181797. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1181797
BYU ScholarsArchive Citation
Gabrielsen, Terisa P.; Kamhout, Sarah; Olivier, Joshua M.; Morris, Jarom; Brimhall, Hayden R.; Black, Braeden L.; South, Mikle; Lundwall, Rebecca A.; and Nielsen, Jared A., "Binocular rivalry in autistic and socially anxious adults" (2023). Faculty Publications. 7634.
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/facpub/7634
Document Type
Peer-Reviewed Article
Publication Date
2023
Publisher
Frontiers in Psychiatry
Language
English
College
David O. McKay School of Education
Department
Counseling Psychology and Special Education
Copyright Status
© 2023 Kamhout, Olivier, Morris, Brimhall, Black, Gabrielsen, South, Lundwall and Nielsen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
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