Atypical Minds: the Cognitive Science of Difference and Potentialities
Cognitio 2015
Young researchers conference in cognitive science
Montréal, June 8th, 9th and 10th 2015
Emotional access in autism
Sarah Arnaud.
My goal in this presentation is to argue that people with autism access their emotions using cognitive rather than phenomenal access. I analyze the nature of this emotional particularity and assess its impact on the pathology.
The “emotional deficit” is one of the main cognitive deficits characterizing Autism spectrum disorders (ASD), a diagnostic criterion manifesting itself through “reduced sharing of interests, emotions, or affect” (DSM-V). Studies in psychology have shown the existence of a deficit in emotional “identification and description” of one’s “own emotions” (Hill, Berthoz, & Frith 2004) in autism, or in emotional awareness (Silani et al. 2008).
I suggest that these studies indicate problems of emotional access. This notion designates the process through which the subject relates to her emotional states. I show why this notion of access is preferable to that of consciousness when it comes to emotional processes. I then use Block’s (2011) terminology to distinguish between phenomenal access and cognitive access. The first refers to the phenomenology, accompanied by a subjective feeling. It is an automatic and intuitive process, which consists of a “subjective occurrence of qualitative content” (Rosenthal 2002). In contrast, Cognitive access is a kind of objective understanding, that Rosenthal calls “higher order thought”. It is comparable to a third person access that enables cognitive processing about emotions.
I explain how people with autism are characterized by problems of phenomenal access to their emotional experience, while conserving a cognitive access to it. I then analyze the roles and functions of these two forms of access in our emotional lives.
American Psychiatric Association. 2013. DSM-5. Washington: American Psychiatric Association.
Block, N. 2011. Perceptual Consciousness Overflows Cognitive Access. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 15(12): 567‑75.
Hill, E., S. Berthoz, & U. Frith. 2004. Brief Report: Cognitive Processing of Own Emotions in Individuals with Autistic Spectrum Disorder and in Their Relatives. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders 34(2): 229‑35.
Rosenthal, D.M. 2002. How many kinds of consciousness? Consciousness and Cognition 11(4): 653‑65.
Silani, G., G. Bird, R. Brindley, T. Singer, C. Frith, & U. Frith. 2008. Levels of emotional awareness and autism: An fMRI study. Social Neuroscience, 3(2): 97‑112.