[DSRP Evidence](https://dsrpevidence.org/)

# Inflexible Updating of the Self-Other Divide During a Social Context in Autism: Psychophysical, Electrophysiological, and Neural Network Modeling Evidence

## Details

**Authors** Noel et al.

**Year** 2022

**Publisher** Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging

**Discipline** Neuroscience

[Read it at the publisher](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bpsc.2021.03.013) 
10.1016/j.bpsc.2021.03.013

## In authors' words

### What they set out to do (purpose)

To characterize how the self–other boundary is drawn and updated in social contexts and how this differs in autism.

### What they found (results)

Autistic participants showed a sharper, more rigid self–other (peripersonal) boundary that failed to flexibly update in social contexts (psychophysics + EEG), reproduced by a neural-network model.

## Commentary

### In short

The brain draws and updates a boundary separating self from other.

### In more detail

The brain maintains and updates a boundary separating self from other (the peripersonal-space border), a concrete identity/other distinction. Purpose: To characterize how the self–other boundary is drawn and updated in social contexts and how this differs in autism. Finding: Autistic participants showed a sharper, more rigid self–other (peripersonal) boundary that failed to flexibly update in social contexts (psychophysics + EEG), reproduced by a neural-network model. [Added 2026-07-30 as new evidence beyond the original 109. DSRP structural basis: D ('no self without not-self'): the identity/other boundary itself and its flexibility.]

**Patterns it shows** D

**Added** 2026-07-30

**How to cite this** Noel et al. (2022). Inflexible Updating of the Self-Other Divide During a Social Context in Autism: Psychophysical, Electrophysiological, and Neural Network Modeling Evidence. Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging.