Tsinghua University's Department of Psychology, led by Mou Wenting, in collaboration with American universities, has published a research paper titled "Exploring phenotypic overlap across schizotypy and autism spectrum conditions in American and Chinese young adults" in the authoritative mental health journal Schizophrenia Research. This study thoroughly investigates the phenotypic overlap between schizotypy and Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASC) and their specific dimensional characteristics. The research findings support the Common Vulnerability Model for schizotypy and autism spectrum conditions, rather than the Diametrical Continuum Model that has been widely accepted in academia. These results were validated in young adult populations in both China and the United States.
Based on the six-factor model of autism spectrum conditions proposed by Zhu Yiqin, Mou Wenting, et al. in 2022, this study analyzed data from three independent samples collected in China and the United States using exploratory factor analysis (Sample 1) and confirmatory factor analysis (Samples 2 and 3). The results revealed three factors with high overlap between schizotypy and autism: Aberrant Salience (a state of incorrectly assigning excessive importance or meaning to ordinary or irrelevant things), Asociality (a characteristic lack of interest in social activities and tendency to avoid social interactions), and Concrete Thinking (excessive focus on details and concrete facts with little or no ability for abstract thinking or generalization). These findings support the Common Vulnerability Model for schizotypy and autism spectrum conditions rather than the previously widely accepted Diametrical Continuum Model.
In addition to revealing the phenotypic overlap and specific dimensional characteristics between schizotypy and autism spectrum conditions, the paper also explores the relationships between these dimensions and negative and positive emotions. The results indicate that Aberrant Salience strongly positively correlates with negative emotions, while Asociality strongly negatively correlates with positive emotions. Furthermore, Concrete Thinking shows no significant correlation with negative emotions but has a moderate negative correlation with positive emotions.
The findings of this study provide a new perspective for understanding the phenotypic overlap between schizotypy and autism spectrum conditions. The research team hopes these discoveries will provide new scientific evidence for developing effective interventions and deepening the understanding of comorbidity mechanisms and neurobiological foundations underlying these two psychological disorders.
The co-first authors of the paper are Marianne Chirica, a doctoral student in Clinical Psychology at Indiana University, and Zhu Yiqin, a doctoral student in Clinical Psychology at Washington University in St. Louis (formerly a research assistant in Mou Wenting's research group). The corresponding author is Associate Professor Mou Wenting. Collaborating institutions include the Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. This research was supported by the National Key Project (2016YFC0906402), Beijing Science and Technology Commission (Z161100000216138), Beijing Science and Technology Leadership Talent (Z151100000315020), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2016M591278), Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the National Natural Science Foundation of China Youth Fund (32200907).
Paper link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.schres.2024.03.050
