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Altered interpersonal distance regulation in autism spectrum disorder

Interpersonal distance regulation is an essential element of social communication. Its impairment in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is widely acknowledged among practitioners, but only a handful of studies reported empirical research in real-life settings, focusing mainly on children. Interpersonal...

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Autores principales: Farkas, Kinga, Pesthy, Orsolya, Guttengéber, Anna, Weigl, Anna Szonja, Veres, András, Szekely, Anna, Komoróczy, Eszter, Szuromi, Bálint, Janacsek, Karolina, Réthelyi, János M., Németh, Dezső
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10065277/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37000718
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0283761
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author Farkas, Kinga
Pesthy, Orsolya
Guttengéber, Anna
Weigl, Anna Szonja
Veres, András
Szekely, Anna
Komoróczy, Eszter
Szuromi, Bálint
Janacsek, Karolina
Réthelyi, János M.
Németh, Dezső
author_facet Farkas, Kinga
Pesthy, Orsolya
Guttengéber, Anna
Weigl, Anna Szonja
Veres, András
Szekely, Anna
Komoróczy, Eszter
Szuromi, Bálint
Janacsek, Karolina
Réthelyi, János M.
Németh, Dezső
author_sort Farkas, Kinga
collection PubMed
description Interpersonal distance regulation is an essential element of social communication. Its impairment in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is widely acknowledged among practitioners, but only a handful of studies reported empirical research in real-life settings, focusing mainly on children. Interpersonal distance in adults with ASD and related autonomic functions received less attention. Here, we measured interpersonal distance along with heart rate variability (HRV) in adults with ASD, and tested the modulatory effects of eye-contact and attribution. Twenty-two adults diagnosed with ASD and 21 matched neurotypical controls participated in our study from October 2019 to February 2020. Our experimental design combined the modified version of the stop distance paradigm with HRV measurement controlling for eye contact between the experimenter and the participant to measure interpersonal distance. Still, we did not detect significant modulatory effect of eye contact and attribution. Our results showed a greater preferred distance in ASD. Moreover, we found lower baseline HRV and reduced HRV reactivity in ASD; however, these autonomic measurements could not predict preferred interpersonal distance. Our study highlights the importance of interpersonal space regulation in ASD: it might be considered that people with ASD need individually variable, presumably greater interpersonal distance. In addition, regardless of the distance they may have reduced autonomic regulatory capacity in social situations. Our results could help shape future experiments with sophisticated designs to grasp the complexity and underlying factors of distance regulation in typical and atypical populations.
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spelling pubmed-100652772023-04-01 Altered interpersonal distance regulation in autism spectrum disorder Farkas, Kinga Pesthy, Orsolya Guttengéber, Anna Weigl, Anna Szonja Veres, András Szekely, Anna Komoróczy, Eszter Szuromi, Bálint Janacsek, Karolina Réthelyi, János M. Németh, Dezső PLoS One Research Article Interpersonal distance regulation is an essential element of social communication. Its impairment in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is widely acknowledged among practitioners, but only a handful of studies reported empirical research in real-life settings, focusing mainly on children. Interpersonal distance in adults with ASD and related autonomic functions received less attention. Here, we measured interpersonal distance along with heart rate variability (HRV) in adults with ASD, and tested the modulatory effects of eye-contact and attribution. Twenty-two adults diagnosed with ASD and 21 matched neurotypical controls participated in our study from October 2019 to February 2020. Our experimental design combined the modified version of the stop distance paradigm with HRV measurement controlling for eye contact between the experimenter and the participant to measure interpersonal distance. Still, we did not detect significant modulatory effect of eye contact and attribution. Our results showed a greater preferred distance in ASD. Moreover, we found lower baseline HRV and reduced HRV reactivity in ASD; however, these autonomic measurements could not predict preferred interpersonal distance. Our study highlights the importance of interpersonal space regulation in ASD: it might be considered that people with ASD need individually variable, presumably greater interpersonal distance. In addition, regardless of the distance they may have reduced autonomic regulatory capacity in social situations. Our results could help shape future experiments with sophisticated designs to grasp the complexity and underlying factors of distance regulation in typical and atypical populations. Public Library of Science 2023-03-31 /pmc/articles/PMC10065277/ /pubmed/37000718 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0283761 Text en © 2023 Farkas et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Farkas, Kinga
Pesthy, Orsolya
Guttengéber, Anna
Weigl, Anna Szonja
Veres, András
Szekely, Anna
Komoróczy, Eszter
Szuromi, Bálint
Janacsek, Karolina
Réthelyi, János M.
Németh, Dezső
Altered interpersonal distance regulation in autism spectrum disorder
title Altered interpersonal distance regulation in autism spectrum disorder
title_full Altered interpersonal distance regulation in autism spectrum disorder
title_fullStr Altered interpersonal distance regulation in autism spectrum disorder
title_full_unstemmed Altered interpersonal distance regulation in autism spectrum disorder
title_short Altered interpersonal distance regulation in autism spectrum disorder
title_sort altered interpersonal distance regulation in autism spectrum disorder
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10065277/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37000718
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0283761
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