What you can't ignore: examining distraction in autism

我们在任何时候处理大量感官信息的能力都是有限的。为了防止被淹没，大脑必须抑制无关的、分散注意力的信息，以便优先处理与手头任务相关的信息。例如，在一个现代化的开放式办公室里，当我专注于电子表格时，我必须抑制各种无关的刺激。这可能包括同事聊天和打字，透过窗户可以看到街道上的活动，香水的香味，剃须后和微波食品。自闭症是一种终身的疾病，其中不同的大脑发育导致一个人如何感知和与周围世界互动的差异。对于许多自闭症成年人来说，办公室等日常环境可能会过度刺激。这可能会影响个人进入社区和工作的能力。然而，自闭症患者分心的经历目前还知之甚少。关于是什么让自闭症患者分心以及为什么会发生这些经历，我们知之甚少。这个项目的首要目标是建立自闭症分心的原因和原因。这将涉及到识别哪些刺激和环境会给自闭症患者带来问题（什么），以及导致抑制效果不佳的心理过程（为什么）。为了解决这些问题，本项目将重点关注分散刺激的特征。这种方法是相关的，因为并非所有不相关的信息都同样令人分心，而且我们分心的程度会随着时间的推移而变化。例如（继续上面的例子），如果我把桌子移到办公室窗户旁边，我可能会发现与办公室背景谈话的嗡嗡声相比，街上的活动更难抑制。然而，坐在窗边几天后，外面的活动可能会变得不那么分散注意力。在这个项目中，我将调查自闭症患者的分心体验是否是由刺激和环境的性质决定的。这将通过将自闭症患者的主观描述与实验测试相结合来解决，以提供对分心性质的全面洞察，从这种综合方法提供的丰富细节和强大的测量中得出。我将收集自闭症患者的主观描述，可以探索关于分心经历的共同主题和概念。我还将使用基于实验室的研究，参与者将被要求对目标做出判断，同时向他们提供分散注意力的信息，要求他们忽略。重要的是，分心刺激的特征将被仔细操纵，例如它们是否包括声音或正在移动，以及它们所呈现的上下文，例如分心物是否可能更频繁地出现在特定位置。测量参与者的反应，眼球运动对分散注意力的刺激和计算建模将产生新的见解的情况下，抑制是受损的自闭症和心理过程的基础上这些差异。本研究的主观描述和实验工作将更好地阐明自闭症成年人的分心物干扰。这将导致一个相当大的理论进步，在理解压倒性的知觉经验的条件。研究结果将用于开发工具，以建议对日常环境进行调整，以便自闭症患者更容易获得。

We have a limited capacity for processing the vast amount of sensory information available to us at any given time. To prevent being overwhelmed, the brain must inhibit irrelevant, distracting information so that information which is relevant to the task at hand can be preferentially processed. For example, in a modern, open-plan office I must inhibit a variety of irrelevant stimuli when focusing on a spreadsheet. This may include colleagues chatter and typing, activity from the street visible through the window and the aroma of perfumes, aftershaves and microwaved food. Autism is a life-long condition in which divergent brain development leads to differences in how a person perceives and interacts with the world around them. For many autistic adults, everyday environments such as offices can be over-stimulating. This can impact on an individual's ability to access the community and work. However, the experience of distraction in autism is currently poorly understood. Little is known about what distracts autistic people and why these experiences happen. The overarching aim of the work in this project is to establish the what and why of distraction in autism. This will involve identifying which stimuli and contexts cause problems for autistic people (what) and the mental processes underlying less effective inhibition (why). In order to address these aims, this project will focus on the features of distracting stimuli. This approach is relevant as not all irrelevant information is equally distracting and the extent to which we are distracted can change over time. For instance (continuing the example above), if I am moved desks to sit by the office window, I may initially find the activity on the street more difficult to suppress compared with the ambient hum of background conversation in the office. However, after a few days sitting by the window the activity outside is likely to become much less distracting. In this project I will investigate whether autistic people's experience of distraction is determined by the nature of the stimuli and context. This will be addressed by combining subjective accounts from autistic people with experimental testing to provide a comprehensive insight into the nature of distraction, drawn from the rich detail and robust measurement which will be provided by this integrated approach. I will compile subjective accounts from autistic people, which can be explored for common themes and concepts regarding distracting experiences. I will also use lab-based studies in which the participant will be asked to make judgments about a target, while presented with distracting information that they are asked to ignore. Importantly, the features of the distracting stimuli will be carefully manipulated, such as whether they include sounds or are moving, and the context in which they are presented, such as whether the distractors are likely to appear in particular locations more frequently. Measuring participant's responses, eye movements towards the distracting stimuli and computational modelling will generate novel insight into the circumstances in which inhibition is impaired in autism and the mental processes underlying these differences. The information from subjective accounts and experimental work in this project will better elucidate distractor interference in autistic adults. This will lead to a considerable theoretical advance in understanding overwhelming perceptual experiences in the condition. Findings will be used to develop tools to advise on adjustments that can be made to everyday environments so that they are more accessible for autistic people.