Abstract
Atypical eye contact in communication is a common characteristic in autism spectrum disorders. Autistic traits vary along a continuum extending into the neurotypical population. The relation between autistic traits and brain mechanisms underlying spontaneous eye contact during verbal communication remains unexplored. Here, we used simultaneous functional magnetic resonance imaging and eye tracking to investigate this relation in neurotypical people within a naturalistic verbal context. Using multiple regression analyses, we found that brain response in the posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) and its connectivity with the fusiform face area (FFA) during eye contact with a speaker predicted the level of autistic traits measured by Autism-spectrum Quotient (AQ). Further analyses for different AQ subclusters revealed that these two predictors were negatively associated with attention to detail. The relation between FFA–pSTS connectivity and the attention to detail ability was mediated by individuals’ looking preferences for speaker’s eyes. This study identified the role of an individual eye contact pattern in the relation between brain mechanisms underlying natural eye contact during verbal communication and autistic traits in neurotypical people. The findings may help to increase our understanding of the mechanisms of atypical eye contact behavior during natural communication.
Highlights
Autistic traits vary along a continuum extending into the neurotypical population
We found that brain response in the posterior superior temporal sulcus and its connectivity with the fusiform face area (FFA) during eye contact with a speaker predicted the level of autistic traits measured by Autism-spectrum Quotient (AQ)
Parameter estimates extracted from both brain regions that showed increased BOLD response and enhanced effective connectivity in PPI analysis in Eyes vs. Mouth contrast identified in our previous study[12] were entered as independent variables (IVs) and the AQ total scores as dependent variable (DV) (Table 1)
Summary
Autistic traits vary along a continuum extending into the neurotypical population. The relation between autistic traits and brain mechanisms underlying spontaneous eye contact during verbal communication remains unexplored. This study identified the role of an individual eye contact pattern in the relation between brain mechanisms underlying natural eye contact during verbal communication and autistic traits in neurotypical people. odel[2] of eye contact has been developed mainly on findings that investigated eye contact in non-verbal situations It assumes that this network is composed of subcortical [including superior colliculus (SC), pulvinar (Pulv) and amygdala (Amy)] and cortical visual areas [including lateral occipital cortex (LOC) and inferior temporal cortex (ITC)] interacting with brain regions of the so-called ‘social brain network’ [including Amy and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) for emotion, pSTS and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) for intentionality, right anterior STS (aSTS) for gaze direction, and fusiform gyrus (FG) for face identity]. It includes increased responses in the right pSTS, left mPFC, the right dlPFC as well as visual cortices, and extensive enhanced connectivity between these regions and all other regions involved in the fast-track modulator m
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