Exploring randomness in autism

PeerJ

article

Vasileios Mantas¹  Vasileia Kotoula²  Artemios Pehlivanidis¹ 

[1] 1st Department of Psychiatry, Aiginiteion Hospital, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens;Laskaridis Foudation

关键词: ASD;    Autism;    Randomness;    Dual process theory;   

DOI  :  10.7717/peerj.15751

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Inra

【 摘 要 】

IntroductionThe fast, intuitive and autonomous system 1 along with the slow, analytical and more logical system 2 constitute the dual system processing model of decision making. Whether acting independently or influencing each other both systems would, to an extent, rely on randomness in order to reach a decision. The role of randomness, however, would be more pronounced when arbitrary choices need to be made, typically engaging system 1. The present exploratory study aims to capture the expression of a possible innate randomness mechanism, as proposed by the authors, by trying to isolate system 1 and examine arbitrary decision making in autistic participants with high functioning Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD).MethodsAutistic participants withhigh functioning ASD and an age and gender matched comparison group performed the random number generation task. The task was modified to limit the contribution of working memory and allow any innate randomness mechanisms expressed through system 1, to emerge.ResultsUtilizing a standard analyses approach, the random number sequences produced by autistic individuals and the comparison group did not differ in their randomness characteristics. No significant differences were identified when the sequences were examined using a moving window approach. When machine learning was used, random sequences’ features could discriminate the groups with relatively high accuracy.ConclusionsOur findings indicate the possibility that individual patterns during random sequence production could be consistent enough between groups to allow for an accurate discrimination between the autistic and the comparison group. In order to draw firm conclusions around innate randomness and further validate our experiment, our findings need to be replicated in a bigger sample.

【 授权许可】

CC BY