Abstract
Accurately and efficiently perceiving social cues such as body movements and facial expressions is important in social interaction. Accurate social perception of this kind does not solely rely on “bottom-up” visual processing but is also subject to modulation by “top-down” signals. For example, if instructed to look for signs of happiness rather than fear, participants are more likely to categorize facial expressions as happy—this prior expectation biases subsequent perception. Top-down modulation is also important in our reactions to others. For example, top-down control over imitation plays an important role in the development of smooth and harmonious social interactions. This paper highlights the importance of top-down modulation in our perception of, and reactions to, others. We discuss evidence that top-down modulation of social perception and imitation is atypical in Autism Spectrum Conditions and in schizophrenia, and we consider the effect this may have on the development of social interactions for individuals with these developmental disorders.
Highlights
A growing body of evidence suggests atypical top-down influences of priming in schizophrenia. Ilankovic et al (2011) asked participants, with and without paranoid schizophrenia, to listen to either self-produced or other-produced speech, which was either preceded by a photo of the participant or of the other speaker
Individuals with paranoid schizophrenia made more errors in the invalid condition compared to control participants, suggesting that they were more susceptible to the top-down priming influence of the photograph
This paper has discussed evidence that top-down modulation of social perception and imitation is atypical in ASC and schizophrenia
Summary
A growing body of evidence suggests atypical top-down influences of priming in schizophrenia. Ilankovic et al (2011) asked participants, with and without paranoid schizophrenia, to listen to either self-produced or other-produced speech, which was either preceded by a photo of the participant or of the other speaker. We recently compared the influence of prior expectations on facial expression discrimination in control participants and patients with schizophrenia (Barbalat et al, 2012b). It has been proposed that this maintenance of false beliefs in the face of disconfirmatory evidence may be related to patients giving too much weight to priors as compared to incoming sensory evidence (Moritz and Woodward, 2006; Woodward et al, 2006, 2008).
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