| dc.description.abstract | In this dissertation, we used multiple complementary approaches to understand how the sense of interoception develops from childhood to adulthood and how this relates to the types of interoceptive challenges commonly experienced by autistic individuals. These approaches were designed to account for the often subconscious, situational ways that we process these stimuli. First, we examined the properties of interoceptive brain systems, which informs how we process information beyond our conscious awareness. In Chapter 2, we examined the structural properties of interoceptive brain regions in autistic and non-autistic individuals and in Chapter 3, we analyzed communication between primary interoceptive regions with the rest of the brain. Then in Chapter 4, to link these findings back to behavior and perceptual experiences, we analyzed interoception using a new generation of interoceptive perceptual tasks that links the study of interoception with the multisensory literature. Using these approaches, we built a deeper understanding of how interoception is developed and refined along a gradient of complexity. We found only a few areas in which interoceptive-exteroceptive integration, or its neural correlates, differed in autism as a whole. However, our findings suggests that interactions between autism and individual characteristics including age, the degree of autism-related behaviors, physiology, and anxiety levels may explain more about interoceptive profiles than diagnosis alone. These findings provide ideas for how to personalize a new generation of interoceptive supports for individuals who experience these challenges. | |
