Title: Investigation of the role of timing processes in Autism
Funder: Economic and Social Research Council

Abstract: Our sense of time and duration are essential in interacting with, and relating to, the world around us. For example, when we press a button at a pedestrian crossing we know about how long we will have to wait for the green man to appear and we can link our pressing action to seeing the man appear. Problems with timing and time perception have been suggested as key characteristics of autism. These could contribute to some of the symptoms of autism, such as difficulties coordinating hand movements or coping with too much sensory stimulation. There are, however, a very wide range of timing behaviours that are known about in psychology. At a basic level, we can examine how sensitive people are to time using the different senses; vision, hearing, touch. At an intermediate level, we can ask how well people can perceive duration, that is how long an event lasts for or how long they will have to wait. Finally, we can examine how people think and reason about time; that is knowing where you are in time, understanding the past and planning for the future. At the moment, how people with autism perform on different types of timing is poorly understood. Very few studies have examined basic timing deficits in the senses. Some studies suggest that people with autism may find it difficult to judge which of two events occurred first, but the findings are sometimes contradictory, and difficult to compare to each other as they use different age groups or tasks. Studies examining the perception of duration (how long an event lasts for) suggest differences in people with autism, but it is unclear which processes in the timing system are affected. In contrast there are good quality studies examining higher-level temporal processing indicating difficulties in planning (understanding where you are in the hour/day/week/month/year and planning for events in the future) and diachronic thinking (understanding how object and events in the world change with time and at what rate). It is, however, not know how these relate to the more basic timing processes. Therefore, we will ask the same group of adults with autism and neurotypical controls to carry out a wide range of timing tasks, from basic timing tasks (vision, hearing, touch), up to higher order thinking about time, change and orientation in time. We will be able to find out which (if any) timing abilities are affected in people with autism. We will also be able to find out whether these timing abilities relate to symptoms of autism, such as difficulties with overstimulation of the senses. We will also be able to find out if different timing abilities relate to one another, for example, if you have difficulty judging the length of a sound, does this relate to problems with planning? Lastly we will investigate just how wide-spread problems with timing are in the autistic population and what form these problems take. This will involve a questionnaire survey of parents of children with autism. Our project will help determine whether and how timing and time perception are affected in autism, and how these relate to everyday symptoms. This will not only lead to a better understanding of fundamental difficulties in autism, but also suggest avenues for intervention. For example, teachers and parents could focus on training children with autism to better understand changes over time. Furthermore, by exploring in depth how the different timing abilities relate to one another in the typical population, our findings will inform our general understanding of how we process and conceptualise time.


Research activity codes: 2.3 PSYCHOLOGICAL, SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC FACTORS
Health categories: MENTAL HEALTH