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

自闭症患者需要常规，从事重复的行为，兴趣非常狭窄，称为“强迫症”（Baron-Cohen & Wheelwright，1999）。这些诊断定义特征被理解为超系统化的结果，这是许多自闭症患者检测和产生因果输入-操作-输出信息模式的特殊能力（例如，如果火山（输入）爆发（操作），然后它产生灰云（输出）; Baron-Cohen & Lombardo，2017）。超系统化也被认为是自闭症患者在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系统的偏好是支持他们创造力的原因。那么，是什么驱动了自闭症患者的学习，导致如此强大的语义专业化呢？语义内隐学习是指个体在无意中获得信息，并将其与已有知识联系起来，从而获得意义并形成词汇形式的过程。这个过程依赖于记忆，非意志性注意力和感觉运动系统（Frensch &Runger，2003）。好奇心是一种情感状态，它会引发学习新信息的欲望，无论是寻求智力刺激（学习型）还是满足不确定性（剥夺型; Litman，2012）。它是由黑质（SN）和小脑被盖区（VTA; Gruber等人，2014），其是奖赏回路的多巴胺能核心，并且重要的是，与内隐学习重叠（Batterink等人，2019）和系统化（Baron-Cohen & Lombardo，2017）。少数几项针对语义内隐学习和好奇心的研究，都是在神经典型的成人和儿童中进行的，发现好奇心促进记忆整合（Fandakova & Gruber，2021;货车de Cruys等人，2021).好奇心可能会演变成兴趣，这是一种对一个主题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的知识（Ackermann等人，2020; McGillivray等人，2015）。只有一项研究在自闭症患者中解决了这一现象，揭示了兴趣可以预测2-4岁儿童的认知和适应功能，包括语言（Klintwall等人，2015）。然而，自闭症患者的兴趣是如何从好奇发展成痴迷的，这一点还不得而知。虽然强迫症被定义为对一个主题的强烈思考，是一种普遍存在的自闭症特征，与高度重复的行为一起表现出来，但对它们对学习的影响一无所知，因为这些从未在任何人群中进行过实证研究。

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.