Serious Suggestions for Autism Research and Study

[Nervous Rex]

I see a lot of people coming to this site asking for participants in various research or studies. I'd like to start a collection of things we want to see research on.

Post serious suggestions for things you would like to see researched and studied. It doesn't have to be a formal medical-research-quality proposal, but should include a goal and enough detail to spark a researcher's interest.

 

[Nervous Rex]

Proposal: Identify possible conflation between Imposter Syndrome and anxiety due to autism.

Background: Two statements are commonly spread anecdotally:
1) There is a higher percentage of autistic people in science and academia than in the general population.
2) A large number of people in academia suffer from imposter syndrome.

At least one study asserts that 50% to 80% of autistic people suffer from anxiety disorder.

Study:
Survey people in academia to identify those with autism and those with Imposter Syndrome, and look for a correlation. Note the percentage of academics with Imposter Syndrome but without autism.

This could be done with a survey that asks some questions that lead to an indication of autism, and other questions that lead to an indication of Imposter Syndrome.

 

[Nervous Rex]

Proposal: Attempt to discern whether social anxiety in autism is neurological or learned.

Background: Social anxiety is common with autism. But is the cause an ingrained, neurological response to social situations, or does it come from negative experiences with attempts to socialize?

Study:
Determine at what age social anxiety typically manifests in autistics. If the anxiety manifests early, it may be neurological. If the anxiety manifests at the age when most people begin to participate in complex social structures (e..g in the early teens), it may be a response to an inability to absorb or navigate the complex rules of the new social environment. If the "social age" (or "social IQ"?) of an autistic person can be determine and social anxiety typically manifests in situations that exceed that person's "social age", then social anxiety is likely a learned response.

 

[Nervous Rex]

Proposal: Attempt to discern whether social anxiety in autism is neurological or learned.

Background: Social anxiety is common with autism. But is the cause an ingrained, neurological response to social situations, or does it come from negative experiences with attempts to socialize?

Study:
Study the risk acceptance/aversion of autistic people in a variety of scenarios, in which some scenarios are social and some are not, but where all involve risk and reward. If autistic people typically take measurably less risk in the social situations, the social anxiety may be learned and not neurological.

 

[Nervous Rex]

Proposal: Determine whether negative feedback and positive feedback are processed differently in the brain at a neurological level (i.e. at the level where neural connections are made, broken, weakened, or reinforced.

After that, determine whether this process is different in autistic people, e.g. if the negative feedback has a stronger effect in autistic people than in NT people.

Background: It seems like many autistic people react more strongly than NTs to negative feedback and negative experiences. The results are social anxiety (unreasonably strong fear of negative social outcomes), obsessing over mistakes or bad experiences. Is there a single neurological cause behind these multiple effects? Or, if this study yields a null result, then we can assume that the autistic reaction to negative experiences occurs at a higher level (i.e. in the software, not in the hardware).

Study: Identify chemical processes responsible for creating and altering neural connections. See if the process differs between NT and ASD people.

 

[china autie]

Proposal: Research and develop best practices standard to train job coaches to better assist autistics with social skills and soft skills on the job.

Background: Anecdoctal only: my experiences with job coaches have demonstrated that they were not equipped to help me in these areas.
This has been the one consistent complaint that I have read over and over again on the web.

Study: Provide one group of autistics with modelling of social skills,and soft skills directly on the job.

Provide a matched group of autistics with some other intervention.

See which group has better measurable outcomes.