The Effect Of Autistic Traits Of College Students On Duration Perception:The Moderating Role Of Duration Adaptation

Time is an essential element in life and work,and duration perception is the basis of time perception,which is the perception of the continuity of an objective phenomenon,including both the time interval between two consecutive events and the duration of an event.Abnormalities in duration perception and adaptive mechanisms are an important but easily overlooked feature of individuals with autism spectrum disorders(ASD).Autistic traits are a set of behavioral,personality,and cognitive characteristics similar to those of ASD in typically developing individuals.In order to examine the role of autistic traits in the effects of duration perception and duration adaptation in college students,two studies were designed to conduct a total of four experiments.In Study 1,with the purpose of investigating the effect of autistic traits on duration perception,the Autism Spectrum Quotient was administered to 1286 college students,and 28 subjects from each of the high and low autistic traits groups were selected accordingly.The differences and characteristics of duration perception between the high and low autistic traits groups were examined in Experiment 1 and Experiment 2,respectively,using a temporal reproduction paradigm.The results found that the coefficient of variation of the high autistic trait group was significantly larger than that of the low group in two duration conditions,but the differences in absolute error and duration reproduction ratio between the two groups were not significant,indicating that the high autistic trait group had reduced temporal perceptual sensitivity but did not differ in the accuracy of temporal reproduction.In Study 2,with the purpose of exploring the role of duration adaptation in the effect of autistic traits on duration perception,21 subjects in each of the high and low autistic traits groups were selected.The differences and characteristics of duration perception in the high and low autistic traits groups under no adaptation or with adaptation conditions were examined through Experiment 3 and Experiment 4,respectively,by combining temporal reproduction with the classical paradigm of perceptual adaptation.The results found that(1)at the test duration of 700 ms,the subjects’ duration of reproduction in the adapted condition was significantly longer than that in the un-adapted condition,and the slope of the duration of reproduction in the adapted condition was significantly smaller in the high autistic traits group than in the low group,indicating that both high and low autistic trait groups could produce duration adaptation aftereffects,but the adaptation aftereffects were reduced in the high autistic trait group.(2)The EEG results revealed that the peak of N1 and the mean wave amplitude of CNV with the low autistic trait group in adaptation condition were significantly larger than those in the no-adaptation condition,and the peak of P2 was significantly smaller than that in the no-adaptation condition.It is hypothesized that the low group required more attentional resources for encoding duration information in the adaptation condition compared to the noadaptation condition,while less resources were allocated for early attention,but the high group was not affected by the type of adaptation.In summary,autistic traits in college students affect duration perception,and duration adaptation plays a moderating role in the effect of autistic traits on duration perception.