Children who have been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often show a marked deficit in measures of social cognition. In autistic adults, measures of social cognition have been shown to relate to differences in brain synchronization (as measured by fMRI) when individuals are processing naturalistic stimuli, such as movies. However, whether children who differ in their degree of autistic traits, with or without a diagnosis of ASD, differ in their neural responses to movies has not yet been investigated. In the current study, neural synchrony, measured using fMRI, was examined in three groups of children aged 7 to 12, who differed with respect to scores on a measure of autistic traits associated with social impairment and whether or not they had been diagnosed with ASD. While watching the movie ‘Despicable Me’, those diagnosed with ASD had significantly less neural synchrony in areas that have been previously shown to be associated with social cognition (e.g. areas related to ‘theory of mind’), and plot following (e.g. the lateral prefrontal cortex), than those who did not have an ASD diagnosis. In contrast, two groups who differed in their degree of autistic traits, but did not have a diagnosis of ASD, showed no significant differences in neural synchrony across the whole brain. These results shed some light on how autistic traits may contribute to an individual’s conscious experience of the world, and how, for children with ASD, that experience may differ markedly from that of those without ASD.

被诊断患有自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）的儿童通常在社交认知方面表现出明显的缺陷。在自闭症成年人中，社交认知的量度已显示与个体处理自然主义刺激（例如电影）时大脑同步（通过fMRI测量）的差异有关。但是，尚无关于自闭症特征程度不同（有或没有诊断出ASD）的儿童对电影的神经反应是否不同的研究。在本研究中，使用fMRI测量的神经同步性在3至7岁的三组儿童中进行了检查，这些儿童在与社交障碍相关的自闭特征的得分以及是否被诊断出患有ASD方面得分不同。在看电影《卑鄙的我》时 被诊断为ASD的患者在先前已证明与社会认知有关的区域（例如与“心理理论”相关的区域）和随后的情节（例如外侧前额叶皮层）的神经同步性明显低于那些未与社会认知相关的区域。进行ASD诊断。相反，自闭症特征程度不同但未诊断出ASD的两组在整个大脑的神经同步性方面均无显着差异。这些结果揭示了自闭症特征如何有助于个人对世界的自觉体验，以及对于自闭症儿童而言，这种经历与未自闭症儿童的经历有何显着不同。并标出以下内容（例如外侧前额叶皮层），而不是没有ASD诊断的患者。相反，自闭症特征程度不同但未诊断出ASD的两组在整个大脑的神经同步性方面均无显着差异。这些结果揭示了自闭症特征如何有助于个人对世界的自觉体验，以及对于自闭症儿童而言，这种经历与未自闭症儿童的经历有何显着不同。并标出以下内容（例如外侧前额叶皮层），而不是没有ASD诊断的患者。相反，自闭症特征程度不同但未诊断出ASD的两组在整个大脑的神经同步性方面均无显着差异。这些结果揭示了自闭症特征如何有助于个人对世界的自觉体验，以及对于自闭症儿童而言，这种经历与未自闭症儿童的经历有何显着不同。