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Background: There is considerable conceptual overlap between Autistic hyperfocus and flow, yet these phenomena have seldom been associated in the literature. Moreover, no studies have provided an in-depth empirical investigation of Autistic people's flow-like or hyperfocus experiences. In this study, we sought to address this gap by investigating Autistic people's phenomenological experiences of task immersion, and how their experiences relate to existing conceptualizations of flow, hyperfocus, and monotropism. Methods: To address this aim, we drew on data from a broader qualitative study, designed in partnership with Autistic community members, to understand Autistic people's experiences of Autistic inertia. For that broader study, Autistic and non-Autistic researchers conducted semi-structured interviews with 24 Autistic adults about their everyday experiences of starting and stopping tasks. During these interviews, participants repeatedly discussed their experiences of task immersion and the benefits and challenges associated with it. We analyzed these responses specifically, using reflexive thematic analysis, adopting a combination of deductive and inductive approaches within an essentialist framework. Results: Our participants' accounts closely matched conceptual understandings of flow, Autistic hyperfocus, and monotropism. Specifically, the analysis revealed the all-encompassing nature of task immersion experiences, and how it could be difficult to “find the balance” between the joy and other aspects of everyday life. Despite the drawbacks, participants were glad to be immersed because they felt they could be themselves, with no pretences. Conclusions: These results are important for reframing task immersion as a state of great potential value to Autistic people's lives, but one that may require additional support if it is to play its role in enabling Autistic people to flourish.

Monotropism is a fundamental aspect of the autistic life experience. The task of deciding what long-term employment to pursue is one of the…

I am defiantly and stubbornly a weaver. Holding this allegiance while teaching at a highly interdisciplinary college of art and design led to a search for thinking that unites expansive practice wi...

It can be very hard to move on from looping thoughts, whether positive or negative. Switching tasks and moving from one attention tunnel to another can be challenging and exhausting.

Healthcare is in crisis across most of the globe, and perhaps particularly in our two countries of the United States and the United Kingdom, both of which appear more disunited than ever by the greed and carelessness that drive socioeconomic and political polarisation, and the systematic degradation of our planet. There are two possible responses to this crisis. The first assumes that this is simply a crisis of organisation, efficiency, information, technology, and scale. It sees people as insufficiently studied biological machines, as sparsely detailed clouds of data, as inadequately monitored and regulated physiologies. The increasingly ruthless pipedream is that, if only the healthcare industry could access and use everyone’s biomedical and socioeconomic data, then their needs could be predicted, and a healthy future would be assured for all. Industry is already reaching out through the sale of technological devices on wrists and in pockets, in homes and at work, encouraging their consumers to act, cajole, or force action or recruit others to prevent disease and suffering; all the while forgetting that, in the end, everyone must die. The biomedical science and technology discovery machine produces tests and treatments to be delivered by chatbots to isolated consumers without the frictions and costs of having to deal with other people. They are set to operate in healthcare systems at scales of speed and reach that are only possible when we abandon the idea that care is only possible between people. This response fuels the ever greater involvement of large retail and data corporations in healthcare, and drives the increasing consumption of pharmaceuticals and medical technology, all of which wilfully ignores the consequences for the planet. The second response assumes this is a crisis of care in and of itself. Care happens in the space between people, in an unhurried encounter. Only …

Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) are known for failing to support the mental health of Autistic children. Unfortunately this is not the only issue with such services, they are often responsible for the assessment and diagnosis of neurodivergence such as autism or ADHD. Within the context of autism, there have been numerous reports

Lots of resources – time, money, energy – have been spent comparing the number of words autistic and non-autistic individuals can list from a given category (e.g., animals) in a short amount of time ...

A new study, involving an extensive international sample of 1,001 children across 43 languages, offers groundbreaking insights into how infants and toddlers learn language.

Based on my experiences, accounts from other autistic people, and experimental findings, I do think that autistic hyper-focus can be either endogenous or exogenous. Expanding the monotropism account to recognize the role of exogenous attention capture in autism helps us explain important aspects of autistic experiences, such as sensory overload.

PDF | Controversies regarding the neurodiversity movement (NDM) may be exacerbated by confusion over its meaning. For example, some suggest... | Find, read and cite all the research you need on ResearchGate

(what a title!) The longer I lead remote teams, the more clear it becomes to me, that there are things which take on an outsized importance within a remote team – especially within an all-rem…

Author(s): Dwyer, Patrick | Advisor(s): Rivera, Susan M | Abstract: This report presents preliminary data from an ongoing study of attention and sensory experiences in autistic adolescents. Although sensory differences in autism are widely-reported and impactful, particularly in the auditory modality, autism literature has only recently begun to attempt to distinguish auditory sensory phenotypes, such as emotional misophonic reactions to potentially-soft trigger sounds, versus hyperacusis-like reactions of finding highly intense sounds distressing, painful, or overwhelming; therefore, the first chapter of this thesis focuses on characterizing auditory sensory experiences in autism. Furthermore, although the monotropism hypothesis proposes that autistic hyper-focus is central to many autistic experiences, it has received little direct empirical research attention, particularly in cognitive science; the second chapter of this thesis aims to address this gap. Both chapters use a mixture of laboratory-based tasks and questionnaires.The preliminary sample includes 14 autistic and 17 typically-developing adolescents, aged 11–16 years. In Chapter 1, autistic participants exhibited psychoacoustic evidence of hyperacusis-like reactions, and questionnaire reports indicated they experienced more auditory sensory fear/overload, anxiety/avoidance, and generalized hyperreactivity. Psychoacoustic and self-report measures of misophonia, but not hyperacusis, appeared to converge with one another. In Chapter 2, caregiver-report questionnaires suggested autistic people experienced elevated hyper-focus; both caregivers and autistic people appeared to view hyper-focus somewhat favourably on average, with considerable individual variability in perspective. However, group differences in hyper-focus did not extend to laboratory task paradigms, emphasizing the need for further research to rigorously characterize the cognitive underpinnings of the hyper-focus experienced by autistic people in the real world. Interestingly, autistic people seemed to self-report less hyper-focus (Chapter 2) and fewer atypical sensory experiences (Chapter 1) than their caregivers’ proxy-reports indicated, whereas the opposite pattern characterized the comparison group. This pattern is not consistent with prior autism sensory literature, and possible interpretations are discussed.

Unlike in adults, suicide risk among children is lowest during the summer and higher during the school year. Understanding these patterns can help prevent and treat suicidality

Autistic people experience more co-occurring health conditions and, on average, die younger than non-autistic people. Despite growing awareness of health inequi...

Autistic people live with more mental and physical health conditions and, on average, die younger than non-autistic people. Despite widespread commitments to tackling these issues, autistic people still report various barriers to accessing healthcare. This article aims to explore the area in depth, …

Autistic parent and teacher advocating for a better understanding of neurodivergence and mental health in education.

This cohort study including all individuals with autism diagnoses recorded in health administrative databases in Ontario examines sex-stratified rates of self-harm events and suicide death among autistic individuals vs nonautistic individuals, as well as associated sociodemographic and clinical risk...

Addressing some of the many common myths that you may have heard about trans people This document is also available as a PDF and an epub file. Preamble.Sex is not binary.Gender is (at least partly)…

Connecting adolescents' concrete work to big ideas may help shape their neural networks over time.

Dr. Mary Helen Immordino-Yang⁠ studies the psychological and neurobiological bases of social emotion, self-awareness and culture and their implications for learning, development and schools. She is a Professor of Education at the ⁠USC Rossier School of Education⁠, a Professor of Psychology at the Brain and Creativity Institute, a member of the Neuroscience Graduate Program Faculty at the University of Southern California, and Director of the USC ⁠Center for Affective Neuroscience, Development, Learning and Education (CANDLE)⁠. Mary Helen was elected 2016-2018 president of the International ⁠Mind, Brain and Education Society⁠ by the society’s membership. She is serving as a distinguished scientist on the Aspen Institute’s National Commission on Social, Emotional and Academic Development and the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Committee on the Science and Practice of Learning. Mary Helen is also associate Editor for the award-winning journ…

Total View | Uptake of Open Access (OA)     Between 2012 and 2022, the percentage of OA articles made available via gold has increased from 9% to 35%, an almost four-fold increase. In contrast the percentage of journal articles, reviews and conference papers available to read via subscription-only fell from 73% (2012) to 51% (2022)....

Noted journalist and scholarly communication observer Richard Poynder explains why he has given up on the open access movement.

Whilst there have been a handful of studies into autism and dreaming, it remains a potentially under-researched area. Studies that have been carried out with autistic participants have demonstrated that there are differences in the sleep architecture that produces dreams and in the content of those dreams. Research into the dreaming experiences of other atypical groups or loosely affiliated communities have shown that this activity may indicate a change in their underlying conditions or may be used to monitor the effectiveness of any therapeutic intervention. If correlations between dreaming and the impact on well-being of autistic people can be demonstrated then this same potential for therapeutic support could be applied. To investigate this gap in knowledge, a Thematic Analysis (TA) approach was used which was later supplemented with an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Three participants were recruited using a Semi Structured Interview Questionnaire (SSIQ) and the interviews transcribed for analysis. Following a review of the feedback around this initial pilot, the data collection was moved to an on line survey based on the SSIQ. This reached a wider group of potential participants and a further 90 questionnaires were completed. These responses were prepared for a parallel analysis, all the responses were explored in the descriptive TA and 6 of these were selected for the idiopathic IPA. The data provided by the on line questionnaire offered some quantitative data which was used to highlight the qualitative findings. Initial findings have shown an appreciation of the therapeutic benefits of dreaming and links to waking well-being in a variety of ways. An unexpected finding has been the role of dreaming in the construct of a sense of personal identity and how it is perceived in the sense of an autistic self-hood. The study will provide suggestions for further research in the area.

Personal Perspective: Parallel movements of lived experience.