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Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders

Gepubliceerd in:

01-07-2014 | Original Paper

Effects of Observing Eye Contact on Gaze Following in High-Functioning Autism

Auteurs: Anne Böckler, Bert Timmermans, Natalie Sebanz, Kai Vogeley, Leonhard Schilbach

Gepubliceerd in: Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders | Uitgave 7/2014

Abstract

Observing eye contact between others enhances the tendency to subsequently follow their gaze and has been suggested to function as a social signal that adds meaning to an upcoming action or event. The present study investigated effects of observed eye contact in high-functioning autism (HFA). Two faces on a screen either looked at or away from each other before providing congruent or incongruent gaze cues to one of two target locations. In contrast to control participants, HFA participants did not depict enhanced gaze following after observing eye contact. Individuals with autism, hence, do not seem to process observed mutual gaze as a social signal indicating the relevance of upcoming (gaze) behaviour. This may be based on the reduced tendency of individuals with HFA to engage in social gaze behavior themselves, and might underlie some of the characteristic deficiencies in social communicative behaviour in autism.

vorige artikel Assessing the Utility of a Virtual Environment for Enhancing Facial Affect Recognition in Adolescents with Autism

volgende artikel Using Discrete Trial Training to Identify Specific Learning Impairments in Boys with Fragile X Syndrome

Note that the term ‘observed eye contact’ refers to the observation of eye contact between other agents (not the experience of being looked at oneself).

The control group entailed numerically more women than the HFA group and there are indications of larger gaze cueing effects in women (Bayliss et al. 2005). Though the HFA and control group did not differ significantly in terms of age and gender, both variables were included as covariates in additional analyses. Results revealed no interactions of Gender with any of the other factors or with any of the interactions [Fs(1, 50) ≤ 1.9, p ≥ .16, η² ≤ 0.038] and no effect of Age with any of the factors or interactions [Fs(1, 50) < 1].

It needs to be mentioned that the condition in which the two faces are looking at each other, as opposed to looking away, constitutes a situation in which (a) participants’ attention is drawn to the centre of the screen and (b) the two faces are looking at something together with the participant. Control experiments in the original paper suggest that the enhanced gaze cueing effect after observing direct gaze is not due to either of these potential confounds. Enhanced gaze following was not found when participants’ attention was directed towards the center by non-social cues or when one face looked at an object before providing gaze cues (Böckler et al., 2011).

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Titel: Effects of Observing Eye Contact on Gaze Following in High-Functioning Autism
Auteurs: Anne Böckler
Bert Timmermans
Natalie Sebanz
Kai Vogeley
Leonhard Schilbach
Publicatiedatum: 01-07-2014
Uitgeverij: Springer US
Gepubliceerd in: Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders / Uitgave 7/2014
Print ISSN: 0162-3257
Elektronisch ISSN: 1573-3432
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-014-2038-5

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