We’re excited to share some of the amazing research coming out of our lab this year! Here’s a quick look at what we’ve been up to:
Are autistic traits associated with a social-emotional memory bias?
Our recent study, published in Behaviour Research and Therapy, examined how autistic traits are associated with the way people remember social and emotional cues. We found that as autistic traits increase, individuals may struggle more with associative memory (the ability to link different pieces of information together), particularly for neutral as opposed to negative information. Additionally, while previous findings (Stewardson et al., 2023) showed that social cues generally boost recognition memory (the ability to identify previously seen items), our results reveal that this boost is diminished as autistic traits increase. These memory differences may lend insight into social and mental health challenges associated with autistic traits and inform tailored intervention strategies in the future!
Authors: Victoria Wardell, Charlotte Stewardson, Michelle Hunsche, Frances Chen, Jason Rights, Daniela Palombo, Connor Kerns
Read it here.
Longitudinal associations between autistic children’s anxiety and social communication differences: The moderating role of executive function behaviours
Our recent study, published in Autism, explored the link between anxiety and social communication differences in autistic preadolescents, focusing on the role of executive function (EF)—skills like impulse and emotion control. While anxiety did not predict social communication differences or vice versa across all participants, autistic children with behavioural regulation challenges (a component of EF) and very low anxiety experienced increasing difficulties overtime.
Authors: Elise Ng-Cordell, Hannah Pickard, Rachael Bedford, Annie Richard, Anat Zaidman-Zait, Lonnie Zwaigenbaum, Eric Duku, Teresa Bennett, Stelios Georgiades, Isabel M Smith, Tracy Vaillancourt, Peter Szatmari, Mayada Elsabbagh and Connor M Kerns
Read the full article here
Does Childhood Adversity Impact How We Remember Emotional Experiences?
Our recent study, published in Clinical Psychological Science, investigated whether childhood adversity —measured by the cumulative total count of different types of adversities—influences associative memory for emotional and neutral stimuli. Despite evidence suggesting that childhood adversity heightens emotional reactivity and biases toward negative cues, we found no relationship between childhood adversity and associative memory performance. Emotional stimuli were still associated with poorer associative memory than neutral stimuli, but childhood adversity did not amplify this effect. While these findings challenge theories suggesting that disrupted associative memory is a key pathway linking childhood adversity to mental health difficulties, it’s possible that the nature of traumatic experiences, rather than the total number of adversities, might have a greater impact on how emotional memories are formed. This highlights areas for future research into how childhood adversity shapes memory and mental health.
Authors: Victoria Wardell, Kate Rho, Charlotte Stewardson, Michelle Hunsche, Jason Rights, Joelle LeMoult, Daniela Palombo, Connor Kerns
Full article coming soon!
Exploring the Overlap of Gender Diversity and Autism
In our scoping review published in Autism, we took a deep dive into the research at the intersection of gender diversity and autism. We reviewed 84 studies from 2018 to 2023, focusing on methodological rigour and identifying gaps in how key terms like “gender identity” and “autistic traits” are conceptualized. One exciting trend is the field’s move away from pathologizing perspectives toward collaborative, community-engaged approaches. However, we also highlighted challenges like conceptual inconsistency (i.e., lack of operationalization of key terms), sampling issues, use of unvalidated measures, and methodological weaknesses (e.g., not using robust diagnostic tools, limited information on statistical power). By addressing these issues, future research can better serve gender-diverse autistic individuals and improve their quality of life.
Authors: Em Mittertreiner, Elise Ng-Cordell, Alana McVey, Connor Kerns
Read the full review here.