FLEXPREAUT

This project is carried out at the LPNC, in collaboration with the Grebnoble Alpes University Hospital. It involves Pr Monica Baciu, Pr Martial Mermillod, Pr Clément Dondé, Dr Emilie Cousin and Dr Adeline Lacroix. The initial part of the project also involved a collaboration with researchers of Eötvös Loránd University : Dr Alexander Logemann and Dr Renata Cserjesi. In addition, several master's trainees collaborated on this project.

The brain continuously anticipates incoming sensory information based on prior experiences and observed patterns. These predictive mechanisms might also play a critical role in cognitive flexibility, allowing individuals to adapt their tasks or strategies as situations change. In autistic individuals, challenges in adjusting predictions has been suggested, and cognitive flexibility difficulties are observed. However, the link between both is unclear and the factors influencing their difficulties are not well determined.

The first part of this project, called FLEXEMAUT, aimed to explore predictive processes in both autistic and non autistic adults during high-level cognitive flexibility tasks involving social and non-social stimuli. We examined the differences in how these two groups engage in predictive processes at a behavioral level and also explored sex differences.

The first study is described in the following publication:

• Lacroix, A., Dutheil, F., Logemann, A., et al. (2022). “Flexibility in autism during unpredictable shifts of socio-emotional stimuli.” Autism. 26(7), 1681-1697.

The second study is in press.

The third study is under review.

In addition to behavioral data, we are now running new experiments using fMRI to compare brain activity and connectivity bewteen autistic and non-autistic adults during these tasks.