Newsletter: Winter 2017
Welcome to the fifth edition of the autism@icn newsletter. We are publishing the newsletter slightly earlier than usual (it is not quite 2017!). This is because the 2017 autism@icn research days will be starting slightly earlier. In previous years the research days have run from the end of March until June. In 2017 they will run from early-February until the end of April. So the autism research coordinator, Paul Forbes, will send out information about the research days in January and February. We hope you enjoy reading the newsletter and have a good Christmas and New Year. To hear more about the latest news from autism@icn, follow us on Twitter.
What do you think?
If you have any comments on the newsletter, for example, what is good about it or what can be improved, please email your feedback to [email protected].
The autism@icn newsletter aims to highlight events related to autism that are taking place (or have taken place). If you have anything you want to include in the next newsletter, please email [email protected].
Latest findings
Some autistic people prefer to have a predictable daily routine. If this routine is disrupted, for example, during Christmas or when changing schools, this can sometimes cause distress. Takamitsu Watanabe (left), a post-doctoral researcher at autism@icn, was interested in investigating preferences for a routine.
He asked participants to play a game on a computer but there were two different rules participants could use to play the game. Takamitsu asked participants to switch between these rules at random so that they played the game with each rule an equal amount of the time. Participants were free to decide how long they played the game for with each rule before switching to the other rule.
Takamitsu wanted to see how often autistic and neurotypical participants switched between these two rules. He found that neurotypical participants switched more often, whereas the autistic participants preferred to play the game with each rule for longer before switching. Interestingly, participants who switched less often in the task also reported more restricted interests or repetitive behaviours in their everyday life.
“Studying and measuring repetitive behaviours in a controlled laboratory setting has proven difficult in the past. This task gives us a way quantify people’s tendency towards staying in a routine. The next step is to see what areas of the brain might be involved in these types of behaviours,” said Takamitsu.
Events
Body Language at the Wellcome Collection
What do you think?
If you have any comments on the newsletter, for example, what is good about it or what can be improved, please email your feedback to [email protected].
The autism@icn newsletter aims to highlight events related to autism that are taking place (or have taken place). If you have anything you want to include in the next newsletter, please email [email protected].
Latest findings
Some autistic people prefer to have a predictable daily routine. If this routine is disrupted, for example, during Christmas or when changing schools, this can sometimes cause distress. Takamitsu Watanabe (left), a post-doctoral researcher at autism@icn, was interested in investigating preferences for a routine.
He asked participants to play a game on a computer but there were two different rules participants could use to play the game. Takamitsu asked participants to switch between these rules at random so that they played the game with each rule an equal amount of the time. Participants were free to decide how long they played the game for with each rule before switching to the other rule.
Takamitsu wanted to see how often autistic and neurotypical participants switched between these two rules. He found that neurotypical participants switched more often, whereas the autistic participants preferred to play the game with each rule for longer before switching. Interestingly, participants who switched less often in the task also reported more restricted interests or repetitive behaviours in their everyday life.
“Studying and measuring repetitive behaviours in a controlled laboratory setting has proven difficult in the past. This task gives us a way quantify people’s tendency towards staying in a routine. The next step is to see what areas of the brain might be involved in these types of behaviours,” said Takamitsu.
Events
Body Language at the Wellcome Collection
On 4th November some members of the autism@icn team took part in the Wellcome Collection series Friday Late Spectaculars. This was a public engagement event which was entitled “Body Language.”
The team bought with them a neuroimaging technique called, functional near-infrared spectroscopy (or fNIRS; see right). This is like a bicycle helmet which can record people’s brain activity. Members of the public could see how people’s brains responded to various types of body language, such as a high five or laughter. If you take part in the autism@icn research day in 2017, you may get to try out fNIRS for yourself.
The team bought with them a neuroimaging technique called, functional near-infrared spectroscopy (or fNIRS; see right). This is like a bicycle helmet which can record people’s brain activity. Members of the public could see how people’s brains responded to various types of body language, such as a high five or laughter. If you take part in the autism@icn research day in 2017, you may get to try out fNIRS for yourself.
Sarah White Awarded Fellowship
Sarah White has been awarded a Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship to study the variation in mentalising abilities in autism. In November, Sarah was also a keynote speaker at the British Dyslexia Association Conference where she spoke about the link between autism and dyslexia. In December, Sarah gave a talk at the Islington Headteachers’ Conference on supporting and facilitating learning for autistic children.
Sarah White has been awarded a Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship to study the variation in mentalising abilities in autism. In November, Sarah was also a keynote speaker at the British Dyslexia Association Conference where she spoke about the link between autism and dyslexia. In December, Sarah gave a talk at the Islington Headteachers’ Conference on supporting and facilitating learning for autistic children.
Spotlight on...
The autism@icn team is a diverse group of researchers interested in understanding autism. In each newsletter we highlight the role of one of our team members. In this issue, it’s Roser Cañigueral.
Roser started her PhD in Antonia Hamilton’s lab in September 2016. She is interested in understanding how people change their behaviour when they realise other people are watching them. This is called “the audience effect.” She wants to use eye-tracking technology and neuroimaging techniques to study this behaviour in autistic and neurotypical people. You may have met Roser if you took part in the autism@icn research day last year.
Fun fact: Roser is a published poet! When she was 10 years old, she wrote a poem to say goodbye to "pesetas" (the currency used in Spain before Euros)... and it was published in a regional magazine in Spain.
For more information about the autism@icn team, please click here.
What language should we use to talk about autism?
“I am not a person with autism. I am an autistic person” (In “Being Autistic”, AutAngel)
In previous newsletters we have used the term “person with autism” or “participants with autism.” Having taken on board comments from readers of the newsletter and also considered studies addressing this issue, we will no longer be using this terminology in the newsletter.
Instead, recent studies, such as a large study conducted by the UCL Institute of Education and the National Autistic Society (Lorcan et al., 2015), suggest that most autistic people prefer to be called autistic people. Therefore, we will be using this terminology in the current newsletter and future newsletters. Do give us feedback and let us know if you like the change.
There are several interesting blog posts about this topic (click on the name to access the blog):
Caroline Hearst, Autism Matters
Sue Fletcher-Watson, University of Edinburgh
Publication highlight
Many of the research projects conducted within the autism@icn team are published in scientific journals. In each issue we will highlight a publication of particular interest.
Do people mimic avatars?
The autism@icn team is a diverse group of researchers interested in understanding autism. In each newsletter we highlight the role of one of our team members. In this issue, it’s Roser Cañigueral.
Roser started her PhD in Antonia Hamilton’s lab in September 2016. She is interested in understanding how people change their behaviour when they realise other people are watching them. This is called “the audience effect.” She wants to use eye-tracking technology and neuroimaging techniques to study this behaviour in autistic and neurotypical people. You may have met Roser if you took part in the autism@icn research day last year.
Fun fact: Roser is a published poet! When she was 10 years old, she wrote a poem to say goodbye to "pesetas" (the currency used in Spain before Euros)... and it was published in a regional magazine in Spain.
For more information about the autism@icn team, please click here.
What language should we use to talk about autism?
“I am not a person with autism. I am an autistic person” (In “Being Autistic”, AutAngel)
In previous newsletters we have used the term “person with autism” or “participants with autism.” Having taken on board comments from readers of the newsletter and also considered studies addressing this issue, we will no longer be using this terminology in the newsletter.
Instead, recent studies, such as a large study conducted by the UCL Institute of Education and the National Autistic Society (Lorcan et al., 2015), suggest that most autistic people prefer to be called autistic people. Therefore, we will be using this terminology in the current newsletter and future newsletters. Do give us feedback and let us know if you like the change.
There are several interesting blog posts about this topic (click on the name to access the blog):
Caroline Hearst, Autism Matters
Sue Fletcher-Watson, University of Edinburgh
Publication highlight
Many of the research projects conducted within the autism@icn team are published in scientific journals. In each issue we will highlight a publication of particular interest.
Do people mimic avatars?
Virtual reality is great entertainment, creating computer-generated worlds where all sorts of things can happen. It is also a useful scientific tool, allowing researchers to create virtual characters (left) that behave like real people, to record how people interact with the characters and train new skills. For example, one study conducted in American used virtual reality to give young autistic people practise at having job interviews. One important question however is to see whether people behave similarly in virtual worlds compared to the “real world.”
Mimicry is when people copy other people’s actions and movements without realising that they are doing it. It is thought that this behaviour occurs quite frequently in everyday life. Paul Forbes, a PhD student at autism@icn and his supervisor, Antonia Hamilton, were interested in investigating whether people also mimic avatars.
In their study, participants played a game with an avatar during which they took turns to point at certain locations. They found that both autistic and neurotypical participants mimicked the avatar's movements but, on average, autistic participants did so less.
“This is an interesting finding as it suggests the behaviours some autistic people display in everyday life, such as differences in mimicry, may also occur when interacting with avatars in virtual environments. However, there are obviously some differences when interacting with virtual avatars compared to real people. The next step is to work out exactly what these differences might be” said Paul.
If you would like to read this paper, click here.
The paper is:
Forbes, P. A., Pan, X., & Hamilton, A. F. D. C. (2016). Reduced mimicry to virtual reality avatars in Autism Spectrum Disorder. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 46(12), 3788-3797.
For a complete list of publications from the autism@icn group, click here
If you would like a copy of any of these publications please email [email protected]
Mimicry is when people copy other people’s actions and movements without realising that they are doing it. It is thought that this behaviour occurs quite frequently in everyday life. Paul Forbes, a PhD student at autism@icn and his supervisor, Antonia Hamilton, were interested in investigating whether people also mimic avatars.
In their study, participants played a game with an avatar during which they took turns to point at certain locations. They found that both autistic and neurotypical participants mimicked the avatar's movements but, on average, autistic participants did so less.
“This is an interesting finding as it suggests the behaviours some autistic people display in everyday life, such as differences in mimicry, may also occur when interacting with avatars in virtual environments. However, there are obviously some differences when interacting with virtual avatars compared to real people. The next step is to work out exactly what these differences might be” said Paul.
If you would like to read this paper, click here.
The paper is:
Forbes, P. A., Pan, X., & Hamilton, A. F. D. C. (2016). Reduced mimicry to virtual reality avatars in Autism Spectrum Disorder. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 46(12), 3788-3797.
For a complete list of publications from the autism@icn group, click here
If you would like a copy of any of these publications please email [email protected]