Abstract
Despite the sparse visual information and paucity of self-identifying cues provided by point-light stimuli, as well as a dearth of experience in seeing our own-body movements, people can identify themselves solely based on the kinematics of body movements. The present study found converging evidence of this remarkable ability using a broad range of actions with whole-body movements. In addition, we found that individuals with a high degree of autistic traits showed worse performance in identifying own-body movements, particularly for simple actions. A Bayesian analysis showed that action complexity modulates the relationship between autistic traits and self-recognition performance. These findings reveal the impact of autistic traits on the ability to represent and recognize own-body movements.
Highlights
The concept of the “self ” has widely been considered to play a crucial role in supporting the human ability to communicate with others (Anderson, 1984). Ornitz and Ritvo (1968) suggested that children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may suffer from a basic impairment in selfawareness, which interferes with the development of social interaction and communication with others
We examined the relation between autistic traits and self-recognition performance, and further examined whether this relation was modulated by action complexity
The low-Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ) group performed significantly better at self-recognition of simple actions than did the high-AQ group [t(32) = 2.23, p = 0.033, ηp2 = 0.13], but these group differences were not observed for complex actions [t(32) = 1.34, p = 0.256, ηp2 = 0.04]
Summary
The concept of the “self ” has widely been considered to play a crucial role in supporting the human ability to communicate with others (Anderson, 1984). Ornitz and Ritvo (1968) suggested that children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may suffer from a basic impairment in selfawareness, which interferes with the development of social interaction and communication with others. Ornitz and Ritvo (1968) suggested that children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may suffer from a basic impairment in selfawareness, which interferes with the development of social interaction and communication with others To test this hypothesis, a number of experimental studies have investigated whether individuals with ASD exhibit impairments in visual self-recognition. A child views herself in a mirror after a small amount of rouge has been secretly applied to his or her nose (Neuman and Hill, 1978; Dawson and McKissick, 1984; Spiker and Ricks, 1984) These studies have largely found that most children with ASD behaved to children in a control group: they touched the nose, or verbally referred to the rouge on the nose, demonstrating recognition of their own faces in the mirror. Based on evidence from the mirror-mark test, it appears that self-recognition may be intact in ASD ( a developmental delay in autism has been reported, e.g., Ferrari and Matthews, 1983)
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