Absence of spontaneous action anticipation by false belief attribution in children with autism spectrum disorder

Recently, a series of studies demonstrated false belief understanding in young children through completely nonverbal measures. These studies have revealed that children younger than 3 years of age, who consistently fail the standard verbal false belief test, can anticipate others' actions based on their attributed false beliefs. The current study examined whether children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), who are known to have difficulties in the verbal false belief test, may also show such action anticipation in a nonverbal false belief test. We presented video stimuli of an actor watching an object being hidden in a box. The object was then displaced while the actor was looking away. We recorded children's eye movements and coded whether they spontaneously anticipated the actor's subsequent behavior, which could only have been predicted if they had attributed a false belief to her. Although typically developing children correctly anticipated the action, children with ASD failed to show such action anticipation. The results suggest that children with ASD have an impairment in false belief attribution, which is independent of their verbal ability

Atypical modulation of face-elicited saccades in autism spectrum disorder in a double-step saccade paradigm

Atypical development of face processing is a major characteristic in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), which could be due to atypical interactions between subcortical and cortical face processing. The current study investigated the saccade planning towards faces in ASD. Seventeen children with ASD and 17 typically developing (TD) children observed a pair of upright or inverted face configurations flashed sequentially in two different spatial positions. The reactive saccades of participants were recorded by eye-tracking. The results did not provide evidence of overall impairment of subcortical route in ASD, However, the upright, but not the inverted, face configuration modulated the frequency of vector sum saccades (an index of subcortical control) in TD, but not in ASD. The current results suggest that children with ASD do not have overall impairment of the subcortical route, but the subcortical route may not be specialized to face processing

Is anyone looking at me? Direct gaze detection in children with and without autism

Atypical processing of eye contact is one of the significant characteristics of individuals with autism, but the mechanism underlying atypical direct gaze processing is still unclear. This study used a visual search paradigm to examine whether the facial context would affect direct gaze detection in children with autism. Participants were asked to detect target gazes presented among distracters with different gaze directions. The target gazes were either direct gaze or averted gaze, which were either presented alone (Experiment 1) or within facial context (Experiment 2). As with the typically developing children, the children with autism, were faster and more efficient to detect direct gaze than averted gaze, whether or not the eyes were presented alone or within faces. In addition, face inversion distorted efficient direct gaze detection in typically developing children, but not in children with autism. These results suggest that children with autism use featural information to detect direct gaze, whereas typically developing children use configural information to detect direct gaze

Atypical disengagement from faces and its modulation by the control of eye fixation in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

By using the gap overlap task, we investigated disengagement from faces and objects in children (9–17 years old) with and without autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and its neurophysiological correlates. In typically developing (TD) children, faces elicited larger gap effect, an index of attentional engagement, and larger saccade-related event-related potentials (ERPs), compared to objects. In children with ASD, by contrast, neither gap effect nor ERPs differ between faces and objects. Follow-up experiments demonstrated that instructed fixation on the eyes induces larger gap effect for faces in children with ASD, whereas instructed fixation on the mouth can disrupt larger gap effect in TD children. These results suggest a critical role of eye fixation on attentional engagement to faces in both groups

A cognitive study on social responses in live situations in autism

研究成果の概要（和文）：本課題では、臨床応用に繋がるデータを得ることを目的とし、モニター画面上の人と実際の人への反応の差異について、自閉症(ASD)と定型発達(TD)を比較した。主な結果として、ASD・TDとも画面上の人と比べて実際の人とのアイコンタクトに対して注意が向きやすいことが示され、この結果は画面上に刺激を呈示していた従来の研究の限界を明らかにした点で重要である。またASDでもTDと同様にアイコンタクトがある時の方がない時より対人距離を長く取り、この結果から実際場面ではASDは視線情報を活用している可能性が示された。この他、ASDとTDの乳幼児期における画面上の人と実際の人への反応の様相等についても検討した。 研究成果の概要（英文）：In this research, the responses to real persons in live situations and those　in computer monitors were　examined in individuals with ASD (autism spectrum disorder) and typically　developing (TD) individuals. First, attentiona　orienting towards a real person making eye contact　was larger than that towards a person in a monitor in both groups. Second, individuals with ASD　maintained shorter interpersonal distances than TD individuals did. It was also found that both　groups of individuals maintained interpersonal　distances longer during making eye contact than　during no eye contact being made. Therefore, at least in live situations, individuals with ASD may　show intact responses to others making eye contact. Further evidence-based investigations are needed　to test how social difficulties in ASD are associated with their limited interests in live people

ジヘイショウジ ニ リカイ シヤスイ オンセイ シジ ノ アリカタ ノ カイメイ

研究成果の概要（和文）：自閉症児は、発話者が音声を発した際に発話者の見ている物に対する選好性が定型発達児に比べて弱いこと、音声の高さの変化には敏感だが音素処理は未発達なこと、意識的・遅延的な処理によって音声のプロソディーの理解が補完されていること等が判明し、メタ言語的な知識の学習は、自閉症児のコミュニケーションの円滑化に有効である可能性が示唆された。また、物に関連する音と比べて人に関連する音に過敏に反応しやすいこと、教員や支援者による働きかけは、自閉症児の聴覚過敏の軽減に効果があることが示された。 研究成果の概要（英文）： Under this project we have obtained following findings: (1) When hearing utterances, ASD children spend less gaze fixation to the referent object which is being looked at by the speaker. (2) They are sensitive to the change in pitch of speech sound, but not to that in phoneme. (3) Their extraction of prosodic meaning is compromised, but could be complimented by off-line, conscious and slow processing, introducing the meta-linguistic knowledge. (4) They show hypersensitive reactions more often to human-related noises than to machine noises. (5) Interventions by teachers and supporters significantly reduce their hyperacusis

Reduced Personal Space in Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Maintaining an appropriate distance from others is important for establishing effective communication and good interpersonal relations. Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a developmental disorder associated with social difficulties, and it is thus worth examining whether individuals with ASD maintain typical or atypical degrees of social distance. Any atypicality of social distancing may impact daily social interactions. We measured the preferred distances when individuals with ASD and typically developing (TD) individuals approached other people (a male experimenter) and objects (a coat rack with clothes) or when other people approached them. Individuals with ASD showed reduced interpersonal distances compared to TD individuals. The same tendency was found when participants judged their preferred distance from objects. In addition, when being approached by other people, both individuals with ASD and TD individuals maintained larger interpersonal distances when there was eye contact, compared to no eye contact. These results suggest that individuals with ASD have a relatively small personal space, and that this atypicality exists not only for persons but also for objects

Is anyone looking at me? Direct gaze detection in children with and without autism

Is anyone looking at me? Direct gaze detection in children with and without autism Abstract Atypical processing of eye contact is one of the significant characteristics of individuals with autism, but the mechanism underlying atypical direct gaze processing is still unclear. This study used a visual search paradigm to examine whether the facial context would affect direct gaze detection in children with autism. Participants were asked to detect target gazes presented among distracters with different gaze directions. The target gazes were either direct gaze or averted gaze, which were either presented alone (Experiment 1) or within facial context (Experiment 2). As with the typically developing children, the children with autism, were faster and more efficient to detect direct gaze than averted gaze, whether or not the eyes were presented alone or within faces. In addition, face inversion distorted efficient direct gaze detection in typically developing children, but not in children with autism. These results suggest that children with autism use featural information to detect direct gaze, whereas typically developing children use configural information to detect direct gaze

自閉症教育の流れ : 20世紀から21世紀へ

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