ArticleJournal of autism and developmental disorders2026
Self-Bias and Self-Related Mentalizing are Unaltered in Adolescents with Autism.
Article in Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Own-name processing in toddlers with autism spectrum disorder: ERP evidence from an auditory oddball paradigm.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- Beyond Theory of Mind: mentalization as a relational and developmental framework for autism.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
purposeThe self is a multidimensional concept that can be represented at a pre-reflective (first-order) level, at a deeper, reflective level (second-order), or even at a meta-level (representing one's own thoughts, i.e. self-related mentalizing). Since self-related processing and mentalizing are crucial for social cognition, both constructs have been researched in individuals with autism, who experience persistent socio-communicative difficulties. Some studies suggested autism-related reductions of the self-bias, i.e. tendency to preferentially process self-related content; while others observed a decreased ability to mentalize on one's own thoughts in autism. However, prior research examined distinct levels of self-related processing in isolation, in the context of separate studies.
methodsIn this investigation, we directly compared self-bias, self- and other-related mentalizing within the same sample of adolescents with and without autism, to identify which of these are altered in this condition. Thirty adolescents with autism and 26 age- and IQ-matched controls performed a visual search task (first-order self-bias), a trait adjectives task (second-order self-bias), a feeling-of-knowing task (self-related mentalizing) and the Frith-Happé animations task (other-related mentalizing). Parents also completed two questionnaires (i.e. SRS, SCQ) assessing the adolescent's degree of autism traits.
resultsOur findings replicated previous research showing reduced other-related mentalizing in autism. However, we did not find any difference between adolescents with and without autism in terms of first- or second-order self-bias, nor in the ability to mentalize on one's own thoughts.
conclusionIn line with recent investigations, our results do not support earlier claims of altered self-related information processing in autism.
Indexed as
Identifiers
39821723What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.