ERIC Number: EJ1200837
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2019-Jan
Pages: 11
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1362-3613
EISSN: N/A
Autism Spectrum Disorder and Interoception: Abnormalities in Global Integration?
Autism: The International Journal of Research and Practice, v23 n1 p212-222 Jan 2019
Research over the past three decades has seen a revived interest in the way the human body--and the way in which it is perceived--interacts with aspects of our experience. Consequently, interoception (i.e. the perception of physiological feedback from the body) has recently been shown to be associated with a wide range of cognitive, emotional, and affective functions, making it broadly relevant to the study of autism spectrum disorder. Although limited qualitative accounts and empirical studies suggest that individuals with autism spectrum disorder encounter abnormalities when perceiving and integrating physiological feedback from their bodies, other studies have suggested that people with/without autism spectrum disorder do not differ in interoceptive ability after accounting for alexithymia. In this article, we discuss the newly recognized importance of interoception in autism spectrum disorder with a focus on how deficits in the perception of bodily feedback might relate to the core features and co-occuring psychopathology of autism spectrum disorder. Finally, a new integrated theory is advanced which posits that people with autism spectrum disorder may experience a reduced capacity to integrate interoceptive information that may result in a narrow attentional bodily focus and reduced motivational and behavioral drives.
Descriptors: Autism, Pervasive Developmental Disorders, Correlation, Human Body, Physiology, Feedback (Response), Psychopathology, Attention, Sensory Integration, Brain Hemisphere Functions, Cognitive Processes
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A