[rimiform]

It's interesting that you point out that the cognitive aspect is the part autistics struggle with, because my experience with autistic people (myself included) is that they tend to be adept at receiving the signal, but are unable to respond appropriately. For example, I find it obvious when someone is interested in what I'm saying, but I'm not sure what to do with that information (e.g. do I just stop? Switch subjects, which might lead to the same problem? Etc.).

Where did you find this information? I might be self-analysing wrongly, so it'd be helpful to know how one might reach the opposite conclusion.