Brian Irvine

Demystifying Emotion-Processing: Autism & Alexithymia Connor Keating considers whether emotion-processing differs between autistic and non-autistic adults after controlling for alexithymia.

Our October #CRAEwebinar:
Demystifying Emotion-Processing: Autism, Alexithymia and Psychological Mechanisms.

@connortkeating.bsky.social will ask, do autistic & non-autistic adults process emotions differently once alexithymia is in the mix?
2nd Oct 4 pm BST

Sign up:
www.eventbrite.co.uk...

📢 📢 Just published!! Share widely📢 📢

📣 Applications and Practices for Empowering Neurodivergent Learners (ebook) has just been published!

👉 You can find more information (including a free sample and chapter abstracts) here: lnkd.in/ee5mbdNa

Autistic people commonly experience anxiety and depression. These issues often arise by adolescence and can have detrimental effects on autistic people’s lives. However, support for anxiety and depression among autistic people is lacking, in part because we currently do not have a good understanding Environmental influences on anxiety and depression in autistic YP - Sarah Hampton (10-Jul-2025)

Our latest #CRAEwebinar is now up on YouTube:
Environmental influences on anxiety and depression in autistic young people with the brilliant @schampton.bsky.social

youtu.be/8RI4dWB9IQc

And for the #AuADHD there might be both more info and more distraction. This might both cancel each other out, or compound things… and guessing which might be in play today is reeeeaaallly tricksy.

“This difference might be because #Autistic people have increased perceptual capacity (so they take in more information) while people with #ADHD are experiencing difficulties in selecting what they want to pay attention to (i.e. excluding distractions).”

Seriously interesting research

Government to “reform” support for autistic children in schools by just scrapping it all together New proposals to overhaul special needs education for autistic and disabled children are set to remove the right to an education, health and care plan (EHCP) in favour of a new model, in which childre...

“I don’t see what could possibly go wrong,” said Sarah Harrow, 41, a mother of two autistic children. “We can just tell them not to be autistic and they’ll be fine. I wish I’d thought of that.”

Happy our paper on autistic adults’ experiences of nonverbal communication is out (free):
journals.plos.org/plosone/arti... Led by my PhD student Holly Radford and @bronteweissman.bsky.social and senior authored by Ashley deMarchena.
Read more: neurosciencenews.com/asd-nonverba...

Environmental influences on anxiety and depression in autistic young people Join Sarah Hampton as she shares research that asks, why do many autistic young people experience anxiety and depression, and what can help?

#CRAEwebinar tomorrow
10th July 4pm bst

Join Sarah Hampton as she shares with us research that asks, why do many autistic young people experience anxiety and depression, and what can help?

www.eventbrite.co.uk...

Thank you all so much. Some amazing presentations/videos/explanations/songs/comedy.

FAST COMPANY Article: While retirement typically occurs, after completing a career and saving and investing for it, a new trend is emerging among Gen Z career professionals called "micro-retirement." Micro- retirements involve taking a one to two- week break from work every 12 to 18 months. Gen Z is using micro-retirement to avoid burnout, find greater fulfillment in their work, and enhance their overall well-being. However, it's not just Gen-Z:

'Vacations.'

The word is 'vacations.'

New preprint: Open data in autism research: the views of autistic people and parents of autistic children

osf.io/preprints/me...

Led by @hannahhobson.bsky.social w/ @dramypearson.bsky.social Audrey Linden @cmanning.bsky.social @fsedgewick.bsky.social @lauramaycrane.bsky.social

#AutRes #OpenSci

Putting together the #CRAEwebinar is one of the best bits of my job. I am so glad that they seem to be of use.

empathy isn't magic Sonny Hallett: Conversations on Empathy #1

How society sets autistic people up to fail: “If you tell people "You can't do this", from a very young age, and if then they have no opportunities to prove that message wrong, then people aren't going to try.” Per @scrappapertiger.bsky.social:

open.substack.com/pub/neuroque... #neurodiversity

Many people I meet don't know the history or meaning of the #neurodiversity movement or #neurodivergent paradigm. It's not a criticism tbh understandable given it's been very, very changed from its intent. So here's a short guide for when you're talking about #inclusion and neurodiversity ⬇️

Environmental influences on anxiety and depression in autistic young people Join Sarah Hampton as she shares research that asks, why do many autistic young people experience anxiety and depression, and what can help?

In fact there’s another one on the 10th June 👇

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/environmen...

The Death of the Student Essay—and the Future of Cognition One professor's reflections on the end of an era, as AI tools such as ChatGPT have murdered the student essay (RIP). Here's why that threatens the future of human cognition—and how to save ourselves.

After the latest round of grading papers, I wrote about AI, ChatGPT, the death of the student essay, and what it means for the future of human cognition.

That’s last as in latest, not last as in forever 😁

Nonverbal behaviours and first impressions during video calls between autistic and non-autistic adults with Holly Radford First impressions during video calls between autistic and non-autistic adults

Our last #CRAEwebinar is now available on YouTube:
First impressions during video calls between autistic and non-autistic adults with Holly Radford

youtu.be/pSn0UYUkXjg

Large twin study shows how environment affects people differently depending on genes Genetic factors that may make some people more or less sensitive to the environments they experience have been identified by a team involving UCL researchers.

"This study demonstrates first, the importance of family-based designs and twin studies in providing compelling evidence about how our genomes interact with the environment to affect mental health."

@uclbrainscience.bsky.social @kingsioppn.bsky.social

www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2025/ju...

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Autistic Young People: Skills Regression, Burnout or a shift in Monotropic Attentional Resources?
Be curious and find out more…

https://autisticrealms.com/autistic-young-people-skills-regression-burnout-or-a-shift-in-monotropic-attentional-resources/?utm_source=bluesky&utm_medium=jetpack_social

It decouples sensory experience from autism. That alone validates autistic folk who don’t report sensory hell.

Alexithymia may explain the genetic relationship between autism and sensory sensitivity. This paper suggest that alexithymia – not autism – might explain some of the variability in sensory experiences among autistic people and beyond. The study used parent-reported data fro…

This may provide context:

crae.ioe.ac.uk/alexithymia-...

Sensory issues in autism may stem from co-occurring emotional blindness, not autism itself Researchers have uncovered evidence that sensory sensitivities linked to autism may instead be genetically tied to alexithymia. This emotional processing trait, often overlooked, could be the true source of sensory challenges across multiple conditions, not just autism.

CRAE’s Geoff Bird in PsyPost; on the interplay of sensory profiles, interoception and alexithymia

www.psypost.org/sens...

emotion wheel starting with "joy, fear, anger" in the center and then lapsing into gibberish

a friend of mine shared this ai-generated "emotion wheel" and unfortunately i have been laughing my ass off at it for like 15 minutes now. today i am feeling Fnliinneon

This
This
This
👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻

So needed so that we have actual research that can BENEFIT us

#NothingAboutUsWithoutUs
#AutisticResearch
#autismResearch

Holly is brilliant.
Preliminary finding:
No significant dif in smileyness in video calls across neurotypes… but… PNTs are less smiley towards autistic folk.

Grumps.

Image transcription: I feel like neurotypicals don't understand that (auditory) sensory overload isn't always related to loudness, but is more often the complexity of noise. Like for me it's the worst when lots of people talk at the same time over each other, that's like my biggest trigger Credit: @asdyke_

I wish more people knew that sensory overload when it comes to auditory inputs is not just about loudness. It's also about the type, pattern, unpredictability, and repetition of sounds.

This feels oddly therapeutic.

Internet Roadtrip Let's take a streetview roadtrip

Internet Roadtrip is my favorite thing on the internet right now—it’s basically Twitch Plays Google Street View. They started in Boston, spent several weeks on a quest to cross the Canadian border, and are now exploring New Brunswick. neal.fun/internet-roa...

Nonverbal behaviours and first impressions during video calls Eventbrite - UCL Centre for Research in Autism & Education CRAE presents Nonverbal behaviours and first impressions during video calls - Thursday, June 5, 2025 - Find event and ticket information.

Join us on Thursday at 4pm, as Holly Radford leads us for a #CRAEwebinar

Nonverbal behaviours and first impressions during video calls Between autistic and non-autistic adults.

Booking:
www.eventbrite.co.uk...