Considering autism diagnosis through the lens of social cognition can lead to mistakes

Abstract

Although « social deficits » are a core feature of autism, this article highlights several conceptual and practical issues regarding the reliability and reproducibility of autism diagnoses based on social cognition evaluation. We argue that autism is not merely a social issue -at least not exclusively- nor is it a variable assemblage of independent social and non-social traits. Rather, it should be understood as a distinct way of organizing cognitive priorities, characterized by heightened attention to perceptual and mechanistic features, sometimes at the expense of semantic and socially oriented aspects. In autism, social signs are highly sensitive but not necessarily specific. For these reasons, we support Mottron's proposal to redefine the concept of autism by recognizing a universal prototype based on the presence of positive and specific clinical signs.

Keywords: Autism; Prototype; Social cognition.