Social and non-social reasoning in relation to autism and autistic traits

Four experiments examined reasoning and decision-making tendencies across social and non-social domains in relation to autism and autistic traits in adults. Experiments were created to measure forced-choice judgments and written justifications in a comparison paradigm of social and non-social scenario-based domains. Three experiments used a scenario-based task to measure moral reasoning, while one experiment focused specifically on causal reasoning with a task following a common cause network structure. Dual Process Theories propose a distinction between two types of information processing: intuition and deliberation. Intuition represents a quicker and more automatic process, while deliberation represents a slower and more effortful process. Following this notion, the Dual Process Theory of Autism suggests a tendency of greater deliberation and less intuition in decision-making and reasoning among autistic people and those with high autistic traits. To test this hypothesis across domains to see whether these tendencies are domain-specific or domain-general, three experiments (Experiment 1, 2, and 4) recruited participants from the general population and measured their levels of autistic traits. One experiment (Experiment 3) recruited autistic and well-matched non-autistic participants for a between group comparison. Experiment 1 found a relationship between higher autistic traits and a greater reliance on deliberation for forced-choice moral judgments within the social domain, and not the non-social domain. However, Experiment 2, using a modified version of the same task, did not reveal such a relationship, which was supported with participants’ written justifications. Experiment 3 used the first version of the same task and found no meaningful differences between autistic and matched non-autistic people in their moral judgments. Experiment 3 revealed subjective yet not objective differences between groups in their reasoning and decision-making, suggesting a subjective preference for and performance in reduced intuition among autistic people. Finally, Experiment 4 revealed no substantial differences in levels of autistic traits between participants, clustered as decisive and indecisive reasoners, based on their reasoning tendencies. Consistently, across all experiments, a distinction between social and non-social domains in terms of reasoning and decision-making was found. Taken together, this thesis suggests that there is strong evidence for a distinction between social and non-social domains in reasoning and decision-making. However, this thesis does not provide strong evidence for a greater deliberation and less intuition associated with a diagnosis of autism or high autistic traits. Nevertheless, mismatch between subjective and objective reasoning and decision-making among autistic people might suggest meta-cognitive differences to non-autistic people, rather than a difference in reasoning and decision-making

Autistic-like Traits and Reasoning Justifications in Social and Non-social Domains

This study aims to investigate how the justifications of reasoning choices relate to the level of autistic-like traits in the general population. To explore this, the relationship between the justification of reasoning choices and the level of autistic-like traits in the general population will be measured

Reasoning and Personality Traits

This study aims to investigate the relationship between reasoning styles and certain personality traits

Atrial Fibrillation Management in Acute Stroke Patients in Türkiye: Real-life Data from the NöroTek Study

Objective: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common directly preventable cause of ischemic stroke. There is no dependable neurology-based data on the spectrum of stroke caused by AF in Turkiye. Within the scope of NoroTek-Turkiye (TR), hospital-based data on acute stroke patients with AF were collected to contribute to the creation of acute-stroke algorithms.Materials and Methods: On May 10, 2018 (World Stroke Awareness Day), 1,790 patients hospitalized at 87 neurology units in 30 health regions were prospectively evaluated. A total of 929 patients [859 acute ischemic stroke, 70 transient ischemic attack (TIA)] from this study were included in this analysis.Results: The rate of AF in patients hospitalized for ischemic stroke/TIA was 29.8%, of which 65% were known before stroke, 5% were paroxysmal, and 30% were diagnosed after hospital admission. The proportion of patients with AF who received "effective" treatment [international normalization ratio >= 2.0 warfarin or non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants (NOACs) at a guideline dose] was 25.3%, and, either no medication or only antiplatelet was used in 42.5% of the cases. The low dose rate was 50% in 42 patients who had a stroke while taking NOACs. Anticoagulant was prescribed to the patient at discharge at a rate of 94.6%; low molecular weight or unfractionated heparin was prescribed in 28.1%, warfarin in 32.5%, and NOACs in 31%. The dose was in the low category in 22% of the cases discharged with NOACs, and half of the cases, who received NOACs at admission, were discharged with the same drug.Conclusion: NoroTekTR revealed the high but expected frequency of AF in acute stroke in Turkiye, as well as the aspects that could be improved in the management of secondary prophylaxis. AF is found in approximately one-third of hospitalized acute stroke cases in Turkiye. Effective anticoagulant therapy was not used in three-quarters of acute stroke cases with known AF. In AF, heparin, warfarin, and NOACs are planned at a similar frequency (one-third) within the scope of stroke secondary prophylaxis, and the prescribed NOAC dose is subtherapeutic in a quarter of the cases. Non-medical and medical education appears necessary to prevent stroke caused by AF