Social cognitive and interactive abilities in autism

Autism is a neurodevelopmental condition characterized by difficulties in social perception, cognition, and interaction. Differences to non-autistic peers start appearing early in development and are associated with altered brain structure and functioning. This chapter begins with an overview of research on theory of mind and empathy, discussing how skills in these domains present in high-functioning autism. Findings indicate that, across development, a sizable portion of autistic people learns to compensate for specific difficulties. Yet, challenges in social interaction continue to impact their level of functioning in everyday life throughout adulthood. We describe how research has attempted to introduce more interactive experimental settings, and how this interactive turn has improved our understanding of autism in contexts closer related to real life. Finally, we discuss the Bayesian brain account of autism as a computational framework that explains social difficulties in terms of domain-general perceptual, cognitive, and biological mechanisms. We conclude by pointing to recent developments such as participatory research and the mining of larger longitudinal datasets as ways to make autism research more effective in improving autistic people’s lives.