Invention and Hypersystemising: The effects of curiosity, interest and obsession on semantic implicit learning in autistic and neurotypical individual

自闭症患者需要例行公事，从事重复的行为，并且有非常狭隘的兴趣，称为“痴迷”(Baron-Cohen&Wheelwright，1999)。这些诊断特征被认为是超系统化的结果，超系统化是许多自闭症患者必须检测和生成因果输入-操作-输出信息模式的非凡能力(例如，如果火山(输入)喷发(操作)，那么它就会产生火山灰云(输出)；Baron-Cohen&Lombardo，2017)。超系统化也被认为是自闭症患者子集在其痴迷领域表现出的天赋和发明倾向的基础(Baron-Cohen&Lombardo，2017)。然而，这一理论似乎自相矛盾，因为它表明自闭症患者对相同和合法制度的偏好支持了他们的创造力。那么，是什么推动了自闭症患者的学习，导致了如此强烈的语义专门化呢？语义内隐学习是指个体在不知情的情况下偶然获得信息，将其与先前存在的知识联系起来，获得意义并为其形成词汇形式的过程。这一过程依赖于记忆、非意志性注意和感觉运动系统(Frensch&Runger，2003)。重要的是，这种学习往往源于学习者内在的好奇心。好奇心是一种情感状态，它诱导学习新信息的欲望，要么是寻求智力刺激(兴趣型)，要么是满足不确定性(剥夺型；Litman，2012)。它由黑质(SN)和腹侧被盖区(VTA；Gruber等人，2014)支持，这是奖励回路的多巴胺能核心，重要的是，与内隐学习(Batterink等人，2019)和系统化(Baron-Cohen&Lombardo，2017)重叠。少数关于语义内隐学习和好奇心的研究发现，好奇心有助于记忆整合(Fandakova&Gruber，2021；Van de Cruys等人，2021)。好奇心可能演变为兴趣，即对一门学科了解更多的持续愿望。它强烈地调节记忆，预测成人和婴儿神经典型人群中的知识(Ackermann等人，2020年；McGillivray等人，2015年)。只有一项研究解决了自闭症患者的这一现象，揭示了兴趣预测2-4岁儿童的认知和适应功能，包括语言(Klintwall等人，2015年)。然而，目前尚不清楚自闭症患者的兴趣是如何从好奇演变为痴迷的。虽然痴迷是一种无处不在的自闭症特征，伴随着高度重复的行为而表现出来，但人们对其对学习的影响知之甚少，因为从未在非典型人群中进行过经验性研究。

Autistic people require routine, engage in repetitive behaviours and have very narrow interests, termed'obsessions' (Baron-Cohen & Wheelwright, 1999). These diagnostic-defining characteristics areunderstood to be the result of hypersystemising, which is the exceptional ability many autistic peoplehave to detect and generate causal input-operation-output patterns of information (e.g. if the volcano(input) erupts (operation), then it produces ash clouds (output); Baron-Cohen & Lombardo, 2017).Hypersystemising is also posited to underlie the proclivity for talent and invention that a subset ofautistic people show in their obsession areas (Baron-Cohen & Lombardo, 2017). However, this theoryappears contradictory as it suggests the autistic preference for sameness and lawful systems is whatbolsters their creativity. So, what drives the learning of autistic people, leading to such strong semanticspecialisations?Semantic implicit learning is the process by which individuals incidentally and without awarenessacquire information, relate it to pre-existing knowledge, derive meaning and develop a lexical form forit. This process relies on memory, non-volitional attention and sensorimotor systems (Frensch &Runger, 2003). Crucially, such learning often arises from the learner's intrinsic curiosity.Curiosity is the affective state that induces the desire to learn new information, either to seek intellectualstimulation (Interest-type) or satisfy uncertainty (Deprivation-type; Litman, 2012). It is underpinnedby the Substantia Nigra (SN) and Ventral Tegmental Area (VTA; Gruber et al., 2014), which are thedopaminergic core of reward circuitry and, importantly, overlap with implicit learning (Batterink et al.,2019) and systemising (Baron-Cohen & Lombardo, 2017). The few studies addressing semanticimplicit learning and curiosity, all in neurotypical adults and children, found curiosity to facilitatememory integration (Fandakova & Gruber, 2021; Van de Cruys et al., 2021).Curiosity may evolve into interest, which is the continuous desire to learn more about a subject. Itstrongly modulates memory, predicting knowledge in both adult and infant neurotypical populations(Ackermann et al., 2020; McGillivray et al., 2015). Only one study has addressed this phenomenon inautistic people, revealing that interest predicts cognitive and adaptive functioning, including language,in children aged 2-4 years (Klintwall et al., 2015). It is not, however, known how autistic people'sinterests evolve from curiosity into obsessions. Although obsessions, defined as intense ponderingabout a subject, are a ubiquitous autistic trait manifesting alongside highly repetitive behaviours,nothing is known about their effects on learning as these have never been empirically studied in anypopulation.