Publications

If you would like copies of any of these papers, please email me:
nsasson@utdallas.edu

Jones, D. R., Botha, M., Ackerman, R. A., King, K., & Sasson, N. J. (in press). Non-autistic observers both detect and demonstrate the double empathy problem when evaluating interactions between autistic and non-autistic adults. Autism: The International Journal of Research and Practice.

Hajdúk, M., Sasson, N. J., Park, S., & Pinkham, A. E. (in press). Paranoia: from passive social threat perception to misattunement in social interaction”. Clinical Psychological Science.

Chisholm, K., Schirmbeck, F., Pinkham, A. E., Sasson, N. J., Simons, C. J., de Haan, L., Harvey, P. D., Penn, D. L., & Ziermans, T. (in press). A cross-sectional conceptual replication and longitudinal evaluation of the PANSS-Autism-Severity-Score measure suggests it does not capture autistic traits in individuals with psychosis. Schizophrenia Bulletin.

Fan, L., Springfield, C., Klein, H, Ackerman, R. A., Sasson, N. J., & Pinkham, A. E. (in press). Assessing the diametrical model of schizotypal and autistic traits in emotion recognition and social functioning in a community sample. Schizophrenia Research.

Dunn, D., de la Garza, J. D., Jones, D. R., & Sasson, N. J. (in press). Awkward but so what: differences in social trait preferences between autistic and non-autistic adults. Neurodiversity.

Jones, D. R. & Sasson, N. J. (2023). A mixed method comparison of stigma towards autism and schizophrenia and the effects of person-first versus identity-first language. Part of the Research Topic, Breaking the Stigma: Autism. Frontiers in Psychiatry.

Bottema-Beutel, K., Kapp, S., Sasson, N. J., Gernsbacher, M. A., Natri, H., & Botha, M. (2023). Anti-ableism and scientific accuracy in autism research: a false dichotomy. Part of the Research Topic, Breaking the Stigma: Autism. Frontiers in Psychiatry.

Putnam, O. C., Sasson, N. J., Parish-Morris, J., & Harrop, C. (2023). Effects of social complexity and gender on social and non-social attention in male and female autistic children: A comparison of four eye-tracking paradigms. Autism Research.

Natri, H. M., Abubakare, O., Asasumasu, K., Basargekar, A., Beaud, F., Botha, M., Bottema-Beutel, K., Brea, M. R., Brown, L. X., Burr, D. A., Cobbaert, L., Dabbs, C., Denome, D., Rosa, S. DR., Dohery, M., Edwards, B., Edwards, C., Liszk, S. E., Elise, F., Fletcher-Watson, S., Flower, R. L., Fuller, S., Gassner, D., Onaiwu, M. G., Good, J., Grant, A., Haddix, V. L., Heraty, S., Hundt, A., Kapp, S. K., Keates, N., Kulshan, T., Lampi, A. J., Latimer, O., Leadbitter, K., Tidd, J. L., Manalili, M., Martin, M., Millichamp, A., Morton, H., Nair, V., Pavlopoulou, G., Pearson, A., Pellicano, L., Porter, H., Poulsen, R., Robertston, Z. S., Rodriguez, K., Roux, A., Russell, M., Ryan, J., Sasson, N. J., Grier, H. S., Somerville, M., Sorensen, C., Stockwell, K. M., Szymanski, T., Thompson-Hodgetts, S., Driel, M. V., VanUitert, V., Waldock, K., Walker, N., Watts, C., Williams, Z., Woods, R., Yu, B., Zadow, M., Zimmerman, J., & Zisk, A. H. (2023). Anti-ableist language is fully compatible with high-quality autism research: Response to Singer et al. Autism Research. 

Chisholm, K., Schirmbeck, F., Pinkham, A., Sasson, N. J., Simons, C., Haan, L. D., Harvey, P., Penn, D., & Ziermans, T. (2023). Measuring Autism in Individuals with Psychosis: Cross-sectional replication and longitudinal evaluation of the PANSS-Autism-Severity-Score. OSF Preprints.

Crompton, C. J., Ropar, D., Sasson, N. J., Lages, M., Fletcher-Watson, S. (2022). Open Science in Experimental Autism Research: A Replication Study of Information Transfer Within and Between Autistic and Non-Autistic People. Edinburgh Open Research.

Hajdúk M., Pinkham, A. E., Penn, D. L., Harvey, P. D., & Sasson, N. J. (2022). Heterogeneity of social cognitive performance in autism and schizophrenia. Autism Research.

Ambarchi, Boulton, K. A., Thapa, R., Thomas, E. E., DeMayo, M. M., Sasson, N. J., Hickie, I. B., & Guastella, A. J. (2022). Evidence of a reduced role for circumscribed interests in the social attention patterns of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders

Scheerer, N. E., Boucher, T. Q., Sasson, N. J., & Larocci, G. (2022). Effects of an educational presentation about autism on high school students’ perceptions of autistic adults. Autism in Adulthood.

Sasson, N. J. & Bottema-Beutel, K. (2022). Studies of autistic traits in the general population are not studies of autism. Autism: The International Journal of Research and Practice, 4, 1007-1008.

Jones, D. R., Morrison, K. E., DeBrabander, K. M., Ackerman, R. A., Pinkham, A. E., & Sasson, N. J. (2021). Greater social interest between autistic and non-autistic conversation partners following autism acceptance training for non-autistic people. Part of the Research Topic: Addressing Community Priorities in Autism Research. Frontiers in Psychology: Developmental Psychology, 12, 1-11.

Jones, D. R., DeBrabander, K. M., & Sasson, N. J. (2021). Effects of autism acceptance training on expli​cit and implicit biases towards autism. Autism: the International Journal of Research and Practice, 25, 1246-1261.

DeBrabander, K. M., Pinkham, A. E., Ackerman, R. A., Jones, D. R., & Sasson, N. J. (2021). Cognitive and social cognitive self-assessment in autistic adults. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 51, 2354-2368.

Zajenkowska, A., Rogoza, R., Sasson, N. J., Harvey, P. D., Penn, D. L. P., & Pinkham, A. E. (2021). Situational context influences the degree of hostile attributions made by individuals with schizophrenia or autism spectrum disorder. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 60, 160-176.

Sasson, N. J., Pinkham, A., & Ziermans, T. (2021). Editorial: neurobiology and cognition across the autism-psychosis spectrum. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 12, 111.

Bottema-Buetal, K., Kapp, S. K., Lester, J. N., Sasson, N. J., & Hand, B. N. (2021). Avoiding ableist language: suggestions for autism researchers. Autism in Adulthood, 3 19-29.

Crompton, C. J., DeBrabander, K., Heasman, B., Milton, D., & Sasson, N. J. (2021). What is double empathy and how can it explain why autistic people are often misunderstood? Frontiers for Young Minds, 9.

Morrison, K. E., DeBrabander, K. M., Jones, D. R., Ackerman, R. A., & Sasson, N. J. (2020). Social cognition, social skill, and social motivation minimally predict social interaction outcomes for autistic and non-autistic adults. Part of the Research Topic: Autism: Innovations and Future Directions in Psychological Research. Frontiers in Psychology: Cognition, 11, 3282.

Pinkham, A. E., & Sasson, N. J. (2020). The benefit of directly comparing autism and schizophrenia, revisited. Psychological Medicine, 526-528.

Morrison, K. E., DeBrabander, K. M., Jones, D. R., Faso, D. J., Ackerman, R. A., & Sasson, N. J. (2020). Outcomes of real-world social interaction for autistic adults paired with autistic compared to typically-developing partners. Autism: the International Journal of Research and Practice, 24, 1067-1080.

Harrop, C., Jones, D. R., Sasson, N. J., Zheng, S., Nowell, S. W., & Parish-Morris, J. (2020). Social and object attention is influenced by biological sex and toy gender-congruency in children with and without autism. Autism Research, 13, 763-776.

Pinkham, A. E., Morrison, K. E., Penn, D. L., Harvey, P. D., Kelsven, S., Ludwig, K., & Sasson, N. J. (in press). Comprehensive Comparison of Social Cognitive Performance in Autism Spectrum Disorder and Schizophrenia. Psychological Medicine.

Sasson, N. J., Morrison, K. E., Kelsven, S., Pinkham, A. E. (2020). Social cognition as a predictor of functional and social skills in autistic adults without intellectual disability. Autism Research, 13, 259-270.

DeBrabander, K. M., Morrison, K. E., Jones, D. R., Faso, D. J., Chmielewski, M., & Sasson, N. J. (2019). Do first impressions of autistic adults differ between autistic and non-autistic observers? Autism in Adulthood, 1(4), 250-257.

Sasson, N. (in press). Reduced prioritization of facial threat in ASD. Encyclopedia of Autism Spectrum Disorders. Fred R. Volkmar (Ed.).

Morrison, K. E, DeBrabander, K. M., Faso, D. J., & Sasson, N. J. (2019). Variability in first impressions of autistic adults made by neurotypical raters is driven more by characteristics of the rater than by characteristics of the autistic adult. Autism: the International Journal of Research and Practice, 23, 1817-1829.

Nicolaidis, C., Milton, D., Sasson, N. J., Sheppard, E., & Yergeau, M. (2019). An expert discussion on autism and empathy. Autism in Adulthood, 1, 4-11.

Morrison, K. E., Pinkham, A. E., Kelsven, S., Ludwig, K., Penn, D. L., & Sasson, N. J. (2019). Psychometric evaluation of social cognitive measures for adults with autism. Autism Research, 12, 766-778.

Sasson, N. J. & Morrison, K. E. (2019). First impressions of adults with autism improve with diagnostic disclosure and increased autism knowledge of peers. Autism: the International Journal of Research and Practice, 23, 50-59.

Sasson, N. J., & Pinkham, A. E. (2018). Exploring the Role of Social Cognition in the Relationship between Trauma and Psychopathology. Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging, 3, 822-823.

Harrop, C., Jones, D., Zheng, S., Nowell, R., Boyd, B., & Sasson, N. J. (2018). Circumscribed interests and attention in autism: the role of biological sex. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 48, 3449-3459.

Harrop, C., Jones, D., Zheng, S., Nowell, R., Boyd, B., & Sasson, N. J. (2018). Sex differences in social attention in autism spectrum disorder. Autism Research, 11, 1264-1275.

Sasson, N. J., Morrison, K. E., Pinkham, A. E., Faso, D. J., & Chmielewski, M. (2018). Adults with autism are less accurate at predicting how their personality traits are evaluated by unfamiliar observers. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 48, 2243 – 2248.

Morrison, K. E., Chambers, L. K., Faso, D. J., & Sasson, N. J. (2018). The content and function of interests in the broad autism phenotype. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 49, 25 – 33.

Hubbard, D. J., Faso, D. J., Assmann, P. F., & Sasson, N. J. (2017). Production and perception of emotional prosody by adults with autism spectrum disorder. Autism Research, 10, 1991 – 2001.

Sasson, N. J. †, Faso, D. J., Nugent, J., Lovell, S., Kennedy, D. P. †, & Grossman, R. B. † (2017). Neurotypical peers are less willing to interact with those with autism based on thin slice judgments. Scientific Reports, 7:40700. doi:10.1038/srep40700. †Co-first authors.

Morrison, K. E., Pinkham, A. E., Penn, D. L., Kelsven, S., Ludwig, K., & Sasson, N. J. (2017). Distinct profiles of social skill in adults with autism spectrum disorder and schizophrenia. Autism Research, 10, 878 – 887.

Unruh, K., Sasson, N. J., Shafer, R. L., Whitten, A., Miller, S. J., Turner-Brown, L., & Bodfish, J. W. (2016). Social orienting and attention is influenced by the presence of competing nonsocial information in adolescents with autism. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 10, 586. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2016.00586.

Benning, S. D., Kovac, M., Campbell, A., Miller, S., Hanna, E. K., Damanio, C. R., Sabatino-DiCriscio, A., Turner-Brown, L., Sasson, N. J., Aaron, R. V., Kinard, J., & Dichter, G. S. (2016). Late positive potential ERP responses to social and nonsocial stimuli in youth with autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 46, 3068 – 3077.

DiCriscio, A.S., Miller, S.J., Hanna, E.K., Kovac, M., Turner-Brown, L., Sasson, N., Sapyta, J., Troiani, V., & Dichter, G.S. (2016). Cognitive control of social and nonsocial visual attention in autism; Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 46, 2792 – 2805.

Greene, R., Sasson, N., & Dichter, G.S. (2016); Eyetracking in Intellectual and Developmental Disorders Research, in Ellen Brazen (Ed.), The SAGE Encyclopedia of Intellectual and Developmental Disorders. SAGE Publications: Thousand Oaks, CA.

Sasson, N. J., Pinkham, A. E., Weittenhiller, L. P., Faso, D. J., & Simpson, C. (2016). Context effects on facial affect recognition in schizophrenia and autism: behavioral and eye-tracking evidence. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 42, 675 – 683.

Faso, D. J., Corretti, C. A., Ackerman, R. A., & Sasson, N. J. (2016). The broad autism phenotype predicts relationship outcomes in newly formed roommates. Autism: the International Journal of Research and Practice, 20, 412 – 424.

Sasson, N. J., Shasteen, J. R., & Pinkham, A. E. (2016). Reduced prioritization of facial threat in adults with autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 46, 1471 – 1476.

Shasteen, J. R., Sasson, N. J., & Pinkham, A. E. (2015). A detection advantage for facial threat in the absence of anger. Emotion, 15, 837-845.

Chevallier, C., Parish-Morris, J., McVey, A., Rump, K.M., Sasson, N.J., Herrington, J.D, & Schultz, R.T. (2015). Measuring social attention and motivation in autism spectrum disorder using eye-tracking: stimulus type matters. Autism Research, 8(5), 620 – 628.

Watson, K. K., Miller, S., Hanna, E., Kovac, M., Damanio, C. R., Sabatino-DiCrisco, A., Turner-Brown, L., Sasson, N. J., Platt, M. L., & Dichter, G. S. (2015). Increased reward value of nonsocial stimuli in children and adolescents with autism. Frontiers in Psychology: Psychopathology. 6:1026. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01026.

Faso, D. J., Sasson, N. J., & Pinkham, A. E. (2015). Evaluating posed and evoked facial expressions of emotion from adults with autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 45, 75 – 89.

Sasson, N. J., Faso, D. J., Parlier, M., Daniels, J. L., & Piven, J. (2014). When father doesn’t know best: selective disagreement between self and informant-report of the broad autism phenotype in parents of a child with autism. Autism Research, 7, 731- 739.

Piven, J., & Sasson, N. J. (2014). On the misapplication of the Broad Autism Phenotype Questionnaire in a study of autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 44, 2077 – 2078.

Shasteen, J. R., Sasson, N. J., & Pinkham, A. E. (2014). Eye tracking the face in the crowd task: why are angry faces found more quickly? PLoS ONE, 9(4): e93914. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0093914

Pinkham, A. E., Sasson, N. J., Simpson, C. E., Healey, K., & Kohler, C. (2014). An intact threat superiority effect for non-social but not social stimuli in schizophrenia. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 123, 168 – 177.

Sasson, N. J. & Touchstone, E. W. (2014). Visual attention to competing social and object images by preschool children with autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 44, 584 – 592.

Simpson, C., Pinkham, A. E., Kelsven, S., & Sasson, N. J. (2013). Emotion recognition abilities across stimulus modalities in schizophrenia and the role of visual attention. Schizophrenia Research, 151, 102 – 106.

Sabatino, A., Rittenberg, A., Sasson, N. J., Turner-Brown, L., Bodfish, J. W., & Dichter, G. S. (2013). Functional neuroimaging of social and nonsocial cognitive control in autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 43, 2903 – 2913.

Sasson, N. J., Nowlin, R., & Pinkham, A. E. (2013). Social cognition, social skill and the broad autism phenotype. Autism: the International Journal of Research and Practice, 17, 655- 667.

Elison, J. T., Paterson, S. J., Wolff, J. J., Reznick, J. S., Sasson, N. J., Gu, H., Botteron, K. N., Dager, S. R., Estes, A. M., Evans, A. C., Gerig, G., Hazlett, H. C., Schultz, R. T., Styner, M., Zwaigenbaum, L., & Piven, J. (2013). White matter microstructure and atypical visual orienting in 7 month-olds at risk for autism. American Journal of Psychiatry, 170, 899 – 908.

Sasson, N. J., Lam, K. S. L., Parlier, M., Daniels, J. L., & Piven, J. (2013). Autism and the broad autism phenotype: Familial patterns and intergenerational transmission. Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders, 5:11.

Sasson, N. J., Lam, K. S. L., Childress, D., Parlier, M., Daniels, J. L., & Piven, J. (2013). The broad autism phenotype questionnaire: prevalence and diagnostic classification. Autism Research, 6, 134 -143.

Pinkham, A. E., Sasson, N. J., Beaton, D., Abdi, H., Kohler, C. G., & Penn, D. L. (2012). Qualitatively distinct factors underlie elevated rates of paranoia in autism and schizophrenia. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 121, 767-777.

Shepard, K. G., Spence, M. J., & Sasson, N. J. (2012). Distinct facial characteristics communicate intent of infant-directed speech. Infant and Child Development, 21, 555-578.

Sasson, N.J.*, Dichter, G.S.*, Bodfish, J.W. (2012). Affective responses by adults with autism are reduced to social images but elevated to images related to circumscribed interests. PLoS ONE 7(8): e42457. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0042457. *These authors contributed equally.

Sasson, N. J., & Elison, J. T. (2012) Eye-tracking young children with autism. Journal of Visualized Experiments, 61, e3675, DOI: 10.3791/3675.

Dichter, G. S., Felder, J. N., Green, S. R., Rittenberg, A. M., Sasson, N. J., & Bodfish, J. W. (2012). Reward circuitry function in autism spectrum disorders. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 7, 160-172.

Elison, J., Sasson, N. J., Turner-Brown, L.M., Dichter, G. S. & Bodfish, J. W. (2012). Age trends in visual exploration of social and nonsocial information in children with autism. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 6, 842-851.

Sasson, N. J., Brown, L. T., & Piven, J. (2012). Neurodevelopmental mechanisms in childhood psychopathology: The example of abnormal social orienting in autism. J. Burack (Ed.), Cognitive Neuroscience, Development, and Psychopathology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Sasson, N. J., Pinkham, A. E., Carpenter, K. L. H., & Belger, A. (2011). The benefit of directly comparing autism and schizophrenia for revealing mechanisms of social cognitive impairment. Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders, 3, 87-100.

Sasson, N.J., Elison, J. T., Turner-Brown, L. M., Dichter, G. S., & Bodfish, J. W. (2011). Brief report: Circumscribed attention in young children with autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 41, 242-247.

Sasson, N. J., Pinkham, A. E., Richard, J., Hughett, P., Gur, R. E., & Gur, R. C. (2010). Controlling for response biases clarifies sex and age differences in facial affect recognition. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 34, 207-221.

Pinkham, A. E., Griffin, M., Baron, R., Sasson, N. J., & Gur, R.C. (2010). The face in the crowd effect: Anger superiority when using real faces and multiple identities. Emotion, 10, 141-146.

Sasson, N. J., Turner-Brown, L. M., Holtzclaw, T. N., Lam, K. S. L., & Bodfish, J. W. (2008). Children with autism demonstrate circumscribed attention during passive viewing of complex social and nonsocial picture arrays. Autism Research, 1, 31-42.

Pinkham, A. E., Sasson, N. J., Calkins, M. E., Richard, J., Hughett, P., Gur, R. E, & Gur, R. C. (2008). The other-race effect in face processing among African-American and Caucasian individuals with schizophrenia. American Journal of Psychiatry, 165, 639-645.

Sasson, N. J. (2007). Investigating the perceptual development of the own-race bias in typical development and autism. Berlin: VDM Dr. Müller.

Sasson, N. J., Tsuchiya, N., Hurley, R., Couture, S. M., Penn, D. L., Adolphs, R., & Piven, J. (2007). Orienting to social stimuli differentiates social cognitive impairment in autism and schizophrenia. Neuropsychologia, 45, 2580-2588.

Sasson, N. J. (2006). The Development of Face Processing in Autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 36(3), 381-394.

Pelphrey, K. A., Reznick, J. S., Goldman, B., Sasson, N., Morrow, J., Donahoe, A., & Hodgson, K. (2004).  Development of visuospatial short-term memory in the second half of the first year. Developmental Psychology, 40(5), 836-851.

Pelphrey, K. A., Sasson, N. J., Reznick, J. S., Paul, G., Goldman, B. N. & Piven, J. (2002). Visual scanning of faces in adults with autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. 32(4), 249-261.