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“强迫症”（Baron-Cohen & Wheelwright, 1999）。这些诊断定义特征被认为是超系统化的结果，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），那么它会产生火山灰云（输出）；Baron-Cohen & Lombardo, 2017)。超系统化也被认为是一部分自闭症患者在他们的痴迷领域表现出的天赋和发明倾向的基础（Baron-Cohen & Lombardo, 2017）。然而，这一理论似乎是矛盾的，因为它表明自闭症患者对一致性和合法制度的偏好是支持他们创造力的原因。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？语义内隐学习是指个体偶然地、无意识地获取信息，将其与已有知识联系起来，推导出其意义并形成其词汇形式的过程。这个过程依赖于记忆、非意志注意和感觉运动系统（french &Runger, 2003）。至关重要的是，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，它引起人们学习新信息的欲望，或者是寻求智力刺激（Interest-type），或者是满足不确定性（Deprivation-type; Litman, 2012）。它以黑质（SN）和腹侧被盖区（VTA； Gruber等人，2014）为基础，它们是奖励回路的多巴胺能核心，重要的是，它们与内隐学习（Batterink等人，2019）和系统化（Baron-Cohen & Lombardo, 2017）重叠。少数针对语义内隐学习和好奇心的研究（均针对神经正常的成人和儿童）发现，好奇心有助于记忆整合（Fandakova & Gruber, 2021; Van de Cruys et al., 2021）。好奇心可能演变成兴趣，这是一种持续不断地想要更多地了解一门学科的欲望。它强烈调节记忆，预测成人和婴儿神经典型人群的知识（Ackermann等人，2020；McGillivray等人，2015）。只有一项研究解决了自闭症患者的这一现象，表明兴趣可以预测2-4岁儿童的认知和适应功能，包括语言（Klintwall et al., 2015）。然而，我们并不知道自闭症患者的兴趣是如何从好奇演变成痴迷的。虽然强迫症（定义为对某一主题的强烈思考）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，但它们对学习的影响尚不清楚，因为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.