Autism is associated with reduced ability to interpret grasping actions of others

Marco Turi,Filippo Muratori,Maria Concetta Morrone,Francesca Tinelli,David C Burr

doi:10.1038/s41598-017-12995-z

Abstract

We investigated the ability of children with ASD to discriminate a small cylinder from a large cube by observing a point-light movie of an actor grasping the object, either from an allocentric or egocentric viewpoint (observing action of others or self). Compared with typically developing controls, high functioning autistic children showed a strong selective impairment in this task, but only with the allocentric viewpoint, where thresholds were twice as high: egocentric thresholds were similar to age- and ability-matched controls. The magnitude of the impairment correlated strongly with the degree of symptomology (R2 = 0.5). The results suggest that children with ASD might be impaired in their ability to predict and infer the consequences of others’ movements, which could be related to the social-communicative deficits often reported in autism.

Highlights

Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterised by difficulties in social interaction and communication, as well as a restricted repertoire of interests and repetitive stereotyped behaviours
Bonferroni-corrected post hoc t-test showed that children with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) had a significantly lower sensitivity than TD children in allocentric view (ASD: M = 0.52, SD = 0.31; TD: M = 1.03, SD = 0.30: t(35) = −4.96 p < 0.0001), but there was no difference in the egocentric condition
The aim of the present study was to investigate the ability of autistic children to discriminate objects by observing a point-light movie of an actor grasping the object, either from an allocentric or egocentric viewpoint

Summary

Introduction

Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterised by difficulties in social interaction and communication, as well as a restricted repertoire of interests and repetitive stereotyped behaviours. The condition is associated with a range of non-social features, including both hypersensitivity and hyposensitivity to perceptual stimuli, and sensory seeking behaviours such as attraction to light, intense looking at objects and fascination with brightly coloured objects These sensory atypicalities, which form part of the diagnostic criteria for autism[1], can have debilitating effects on the lives of autistic people and their families[2,3]. Campanella and colleagues[31] recently investigated the ability of young adults to discriminate object size by observing a point-light movie of an actor grasping an object, either from an allocentric (consistent with observing the action of others) or egocentric (consistent with observing the action of oneself) viewpoint. The ability improved progressively up till about 18 years, with an advantage for the egocentric viewpoint emerging after about 9 years (as reported for adults[31])

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion