title: Metacognition of agency and theory of mind in adults with high functioning autism.
abstract: We investigated metacognition of agency in adults with high functioning autism or Asperger Syndrome (HFA/AS) using a computer task in which participants moved the mouse to get the cursor to touch the downward moving X's and avoid the O's. They were then asked to make judgments of performance and judgments of agency. Objective control was either undistorted, or distorted by adding turbulence (i.e., random noise) or a time Lag between the mouse and cursor movements. Participants with HFA/AS used sensorimotor cues available in the turbulence and lag conditions to a lesser extent than control participants in making their judgments of agency. Furthermore, the failure to use these internal diagnostic cues to their own agency was correlated with decrements in a theory of mind task. These findings suggest that a reduced sensitivity to veridical internal cues about the sense of agency is related to mentalizing impairments in autism.
authors.affiliation: Institut Jean Nicod, CNRS, Ecole Normale Supérieure, PSL Research University, Paris, France. Electronic address: tiziana.zalla@ens.fr.
authors.forename: Tiziana
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Zalla
authors.affiliation: Department of Counseling, Developmental, and Educational Psychology, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA, USA.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Miele
authors.affiliation: INSERM U 955, IMRB & University Paris Est Creteil, AP-HP, Henri Mondor-Albert Chenevier Hospitals, Department of Psychiatry, Fondation FondaMental, French National Science Foundation, Creteil, France.
authors.forename: Marion
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Leboyer
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Janet
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Metcalfe
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D056345:Theory of Mind / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Action monitoring; Autism; Metacognition; Metacognition of agency; Self-knowledge; Theory of mind