Adults with autism spectrum disorder show atypical patterns of thoughts and feelings during rest

Abstract

Mind wandering constitutes a major part of everyday experience and is inherently related to how we feel and identify ourselves. Thus, probing the character and content of thoughts and feelings experienced during mind-wandering episodes could lead to a better understanding of the human mind in health and disease. How mind wandering and spontaneous thought processes are affected in disorders such as autism is poorly understood. Here, we used the eyes-closed rest condition to stimulate mind wandering and quantified the subjective experiences using the Amsterdam Resting-State Questionnaire—which quantifies subjective psychological states of resting-state cognition across 10 domains—in 88 adults with autism spectrum disorder and 90 controls. We observed an atypical pattern of both thoughts and feelings in the autism spectrum disorder cohort, specifically in the domains of Theory of Mind, Comfort, and Discontinuity of Mind. We propose that the use of the Amsterdam Resting-State Questionnaire as a standardized cognitive instrument could advance our understanding of thoughts and feelings in autism spectrum disorder as well as in a wide variety of other brain disorders and how these may change due to therapeutic interventions. Lay abstract Everyone knows the feeling of letting one’s mind wander freely in a quiet moment. The thoughts and feelings experienced in those moments have been shown to influence our well-being—and vice versa. In this study, we looked at which thoughts and feelings are being experienced by adults with autism spectrum disorder and compared them to adults without autism spectrum disorder. In total, 88 adults with autism spectrum disorder and 90 adults without autism spectrum disorder were asked to rest for 5 min with their eyes closed and let their mind wander. Directly after, they filled in the Amsterdam Resting-State Questionnaire, which probes what participants were feeling and thinking during the period of rest. We found that adults with autism spectrum disorder tend to think less about others, felt less comfortable, and had more disrupted thoughts during the rest compared to adults without autism spectrum disorder. Interestingly, autism spectrum disorder participants reporting lower levels of comfort during the rest also reported more autism spectrum disorder symptoms, specifically in social behaviors and skills, attention switching, and imagination. We propose to use the eyes-closed rest condition in combination with the Amsterdam Resting-State Questionnaire more widely to shed light on aberrant thoughts and feelings in brain disorders and to study the effect of therapeutic interventions.

Pre-retirement Employees Experience Lasting Improvements in Resilience and Well-Being After Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction

“…One must feel comfortable to maintain focus of attention, including to own thoughts as reflected in the strong negative correlations between Discontinuity of Mind and Comfort (Diaz et al, 2013). Several studies using the ARSQ have reported reduced Comfort in clinical cohorts, including insomnia (Palagini et al, 2016), autism (Simpraga et al, 2021), and also health anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorder (Gehrt et al, 2020). Thus, there is a need and our results indicate a potential for MBSR to facilitate a greater feeling of comfort in these disorders.…”

“…Using the ARSQ, reproducible patterns of individual thoughts and feelings have been observed, and associated with scores on insomnia, anxiety, and depression in large population samples (Diaz et al, 2013). Likewise, mental disorders including health anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder (Gehrt et al, 2020) insomnia disorder (Palagini et al, 2016) and autism spectrum disorder (Simpraga et al, 2021) have been associated with distinct ARSQ profiles. Studies of the therapeutic benefits of MBSR have used clinical scales that refer to experiences during weeks or even months to assess participants' well-being, as well as symptoms of stress, anxiety, and depression.…”

Relationship between Spatiotemporal Dynamics of the Brain at Rest and Self-Reported Spontaneous Thoughts: An EEG Microstate Approach

“…The ability to relax and feel comfortable is related to interoceptive aspects through the urge to restore balance in physical and emotional context [56,57]. The domain of Comfort was previously related with the ability to switch between tasks [58], correlated with character traits of self-directedness (associated with individual ability to govern behavior according to situational demand) [13] and mental and physical well-being [12].…”

Mind wandering in adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: Preliminary evaluation using the Mind Excessively Wandering Scale in a Japanese clinical population

“…In the study by Helfer et al, 47 MEWS scores did not differ between adults with ADHD and ASD, both of which were higher than those of the controls. Similar neural abnormalities associated with DMN and MW have been reported in ADHD and ASD 45,48–50 ; however, the mechanisms or content of MW may differ 47,51 . Given that individuals with both ADHD and ASD exhibit greater impairments in various domains than those with only ADHD, 52 elevated MW with an association with AQ scores may reflect the social impairments experienced by the participants.…”