Universität zu Köln

Falter-Wagner, Christine M., Bloch, Carola ORCID: 0000-0002-5234-0336, Burghof, Lana, Lehnhardt, Fritz-Georg and Vogeley, Kai ORCID: 0000-0002-5891-5831 (2022). Autism traits outweigh alexithymia traits in the explanation of mentalising performance in adults with autism but not in adults with rejected autism diagnosis. Mol. Autism, 13 (1). LONDON: BMC. ISSN 2040-2392

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Abstract

Background Pronounced alexithymia traits have been found in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and recent research has been carving out the impact alexithymia traits might have on mentalising deficits associated with ASD. Method In this cross-sectional study, a large representative referral population for diagnostic examination for possible ASD (n = 400) was screened for clinical alexithymia with a German version of the Reading the Mind in the Eyes test (RME). In contrast to previous attempts to carve out the impact of alexithymia traits on mentalising deficits though, we employed dominance analysis to account for the correlation between predictors. The relative relationship between alexithymia traits and autism traits with RME performance was investigated in the group of individuals with confirmed ASD diagnosis (N = 281) and compared to the clinical referral sample in which ASD was ruled out (N = 119). Results Dominance analysis revealed autism traits to be the strongest predictor for reduced mentalising skills in the ASD sample, whereas alexithymia contributed significantly less. In the sample of individuals with ruled out diagnosis, autism traits were the strongest predictor, but alexithymia traits were in sum equally associated to mentalising, with the External-Oriented Thinking subscale as an important predictor of this association. Limitations It needs to be considered that the cross-sectional study design does not allow for causal inference. Furthermore, mentalising is a highly facetted capacity and measurements need to reduce this complexity into simple quantities which limits the generalizability of results. Discussion While alexithymia traits should be considered for their mental health importance, they do not dominate the explanation of reduced mentalising skills in individuals with ASD, but they might do to a larger degree in individuals with ruled out ASD.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID ORCID Put Code Falter-Wagner, Christine M. UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED Bloch, Carola UNSPECIFIED orcid.org/0000-0002-5234-0336 UNSPECIFIED Burghof, Lana UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED Lehnhardt, Fritz-Georg UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED Vogeley, Kai UNSPECIFIED orcid.org/0000-0002-5891-5831 UNSPECIFIED
URN:	urn:nbn:de:hbz:38-674926
DOI:	10.1186/s13229-022-00510-9
Journal or Publication Title:	Mol. Autism
Volume:	13
Number:	1
Date:	2022
Publisher:	BMC
Place of Publication:	LONDON
ISSN:	2040-2392
Language:	English
Faculty:	Unspecified
Divisions:	Unspecified
Subjects:	no entry
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Keywords Language ASPERGER-SYNDROME; RELATIVE IMPORTANCE; FUNCTIONING AUTISM; FACTORIAL VALIDITY; LINEAR-REGRESSION; SPECTRUM DISORDER; MIND; SCALE; HETEROSCEDASTICITY; RECOGNITION Multiple languages Genetics & Heredity; Neurosciences Multiple languages
URI:	http://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/id/eprint/67492