1
|
Wu R, Hamilton AFDC, White SJ. Can group membership modulate the social abilities of autistic people? An intergroup bias in smile perception. Cortex 2024; 173:150-160. [PMID: 38402659 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2023.12.018] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/28/2023] [Revised: 07/24/2023] [Accepted: 12/28/2023] [Indexed: 02/27/2024]
Abstract
Autistic adults struggle to reliably differentiate genuine and posed smiles. Intergroup bias is a promising factor that may modulate smile discrimination performance, which has been shown in neurotypical adults, and which could highlight ways to make social interactions easier. However, it is not clear whether this bias also exists in autistic people. Thus, the current study aimed to investigate this in autism using a minimal group paradigm. Seventy-five autistic and sixty-one non-autistic adults viewed videos of people making genuine or posed smiles and were informed (falsely) that some of the actors were from an in-group and others were from an out-group. The ability to identify smile authenticity of in-group and out-group members and group identification were assessed. Our results revealed that both groups seemed equally susceptible to ingroup favouritism, rating ingroup members as more genuine, but autistic adults also generally rated smiles as less genuine and were less likely to identify with ingroup members. Autistic adults showed reduced sensitivity to the different smile types but the absence of an intergroup bias in smile discrimination in both groups seems to indicate that membership can only modulate social judgements but not social abilities. These findings suggest a reconsideration of past findings that might have misrepresented the social judgements of autistic people through introducing an outgroup disadvantage, but also a need for tailored support for autistic social differences that emphasizes similarity and inclusion between diverse people.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Ruihan Wu
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London, UK.
| | | | - Sarah J White
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London, UK.
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Jenner LA, Farran EK, Welham A, Jones C, Moss J. The use of eye-tracking technology as a tool to evaluate social cognition in people with an intellectual disability: a systematic review and meta-analysis. J Neurodev Disord 2023; 15:42. [PMID: 38044457 PMCID: PMC10694880 DOI: 10.1186/s11689-023-09506-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/24/2023] [Accepted: 10/25/2023] [Indexed: 12/05/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Relatively little is known about social cognition in people with intellectual disability (ID), and how this may support understanding of co-occurring autism. A limitation of previous research is that traditional social-cognitive tasks place a demand on domain-general cognition and language abilities. These tasks are not suitable for people with ID and lack the sensitivity to detect subtle social-cognitive processes. In autism research, eye-tracking technology has offered an effective method of evaluating social cognition-indicating associations between visual social attention and autism characteristics. The present systematic review synthesised research which has used eye-tracking technology to study social cognition in ID. A meta-analysis was used to explore whether visual attention on socially salient regions (SSRs) of stimuli during these tasks correlated with degree of autism characteristics presented on clinical assessment tools. METHOD Searches were conducted using four databases, research mailing lists, and citation tracking. Following in-depth screening and exclusion of studies with low methodological quality, 49 articles were included in the review. A correlational meta-analysis was run on Pearson's r values obtained from twelve studies, reporting the relationship between visual attention on SSRs and autism characteristics. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS Eye-tracking technology was used to measure different social-cognitive abilities across a range of syndromic and non-syndromic ID groups. Restricted scan paths and eye-region avoidance appeared to impact people's ability to make explicit inferences about mental states and social cues. Readiness to attend to social stimuli also varied depending on social content and degree of familiarity. A meta-analysis using a random effects model revealed a significant negative correlation (r = -.28, [95% CI -.47, -.08]) between visual attention on SSRs and autism characteristics across ID groups. Together, these findings highlight how eye-tracking can be used as an accessible tool to measure more subtle social-cognitive processes, which appear to reflect variability in observable behaviour. Further research is needed to be able to explore additional covariates (e.g. ID severity, ADHD, anxiety) which may be related to visual attention on SSRs, to different degrees within syndromic and non-syndromic ID groups, in order to determine the specificity of the association with autism characteristics.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- L A Jenner
- School of Psychology, University of Surrey, Surrey, UK.
| | - E K Farran
- School of Psychology, University of Surrey, Surrey, UK
| | - A Welham
- School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
| | - C Jones
- School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
| | - J Moss
- School of Psychology, University of Surrey, Surrey, UK
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Eye-Tracking Studies in Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. J Autism Dev Disord 2022; 53:2430-2443. [PMID: 35355174 DOI: 10.1007/s10803-022-05524-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 03/06/2022] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
Abstract
Eye-tracking studies have shown potential in effectively discriminating between autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and non-ASD groups. The main objective of the present study was to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis of eye-tracking studies in adults with ASD. A total of 22 studies were included for meta-analysis. Eyes and Non-Social regions proved better for discriminating between ASD and non-ASD adults, while fixation duration seems to be the outcome to choose. Active engaged tasks seem to reduce differences between ASD and non-ASD adults, regardless of the emotional content of the stimuli/task. Proportional fixation duration on eyes and non-social areas in non-active tasks (e.g. free viewing) seems to be the best eye-tracking design for increasing the sensitivity and specificity in ASD adults.
Collapse
|
4
|
Liu W, Li M, Zou X, Raj B. Discriminative Dictionary Learning for Autism Spectrum Disorder Identification. Front Comput Neurosci 2021; 15:662401. [PMID: 34819846 PMCID: PMC8606656 DOI: 10.3389/fncom.2021.662401] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/01/2021] [Accepted: 09/20/2021] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a group of lifelong neurodevelopmental disorders with complicated causes. A key symptom of ASD patients is their impaired interpersonal communication ability. Recent study shows that face scanning patterns of individuals with ASD are often different from those of typical developing (TD) ones. Such abnormality motivates us to study the feasibility of identifying ASD children based on their face scanning patterns with machine learning methods. In this paper, we consider using the bag-of-words (BoW) model to encode the face scanning patterns, and propose a novel dictionary learning method based on dual mode seeking for better BoW representation. Unlike k-means which is broadly used in conventional BoW models to learn dictionaries, the proposed method captures discriminative information by finding atoms which maximizes both the purity and coverage of belonging samples within one class. Compared to the rich literature of ASD studies from psychology and neural science, our work marks one of the relatively few attempts to directly identify high-functioning ASD children with machine learning methods. Experiments demonstrate the superior performance of our method with considerable gain over several baselines. Although the proposed work is yet too preliminary to directly replace existing autism diagnostic observation schedules in the clinical practice, it shed light on future applications of machine learning methods in early screening of ASD.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Wenbo Liu
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, United States
- School of Electronics and Information Technology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Ming Li
- Data Science Research Center, Duke Kunshan University, Suzhou, China
- School of Computer Science, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China
| | - Xiaobing Zou
- The Third Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Bhiksha Raj
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, United States
- Language Technologies Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, United States
| |
Collapse
|
5
|
Ma X, Gu H, Zhao J. Atypical gaze patterns to facial feature areas in autism spectrum disorders reveal age and culture effects: A meta-analysis of eye-tracking studies. Autism Res 2021; 14:2625-2639. [PMID: 34542246 DOI: 10.1002/aur.2607] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/17/2021] [Revised: 08/07/2021] [Accepted: 08/21/2021] [Indexed: 12/28/2022]
Abstract
Children and adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often present with atypical gaze patterns to others' faces, a finding substantiated throughout the literature. Yet, a quantification of atypical gaze patterns to different facial regions (e.g., eyes versus mouth) in ASD remains controversial. Also few study has investigated how age and culture impacted the pattern of gaze abnormalities in ASD. This research therefore conducted a meta-analysis of eye-tracking studies to evaluate age and culture effect on atypical gaze patterns of face processing in ASD. A total of 75 articles (91 studies) and 4209 individuals (ASD: 2027; controls: 2182) across all age ranges (i.e., childhood through to adulthood) from both Eastern and Western cultures were included in this meta-analysis. Individuals with ASD yielded shorter fixation durations to the eyes than individuals without ASD. Group differences in the time spent fixating on the eyes were not modulated by age, but affected by culture. Effect size in the eastern culture was larger than that in the western culture. In contrast, group differences on time spent looking at the mouth were not significant, but changed with age and modulated by culture. Relative to the neurotypical controls, Western individuals with ASD spent more time looking at the mouth from school age, whereas Eastern individuals with ASD did not gaze longer on mouth until adulthood. These results add to the body of evidence supporting atypical gaze behaviors to eyes in ASD and provide new insights into a potential mouth compensation strategy that develops with age in ASD. LAY SUMMARY: Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often show atypical gaze patterns when looking at others' faces compared to neurotypical individuals. This paper examines the role of age and culture on pattern of gaze abnormalities in individuals with ASD. Results show that reduction of gaze on eyes in ASD is stable across all ages and cultures, while increase of gaze on mouth emerges as individuals with ASD get older. The findings provide a developmental insight to the gaze patterns on the autism spectrum across culture.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Xue'er Ma
- School of Psychology, Shaanxi Normal University, Shaanxi Provincial Key Research Center of Child Mental and Behavioral Health, Xi'an, China
| | - Haixia Gu
- School of Psychology, Shaanxi Normal University, Shaanxi Provincial Key Research Center of Child Mental and Behavioral Health, Xi'an, China
| | - Jingjing Zhao
- School of Psychology, Shaanxi Normal University, Shaanxi Provincial Key Research Center of Child Mental and Behavioral Health, Xi'an, China
| |
Collapse
|
6
|
Hauschild KM, Felsman P, Keifer CM, Lerner MD. Evidence of an Own-Age Bias in Facial Emotion Recognition for Adolescents With and Without Autism Spectrum Disorder. Front Psychiatry 2020; 11:428. [PMID: 32581859 PMCID: PMC7286307 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2020.00428] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/05/2019] [Accepted: 04/27/2020] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
A common interpretation of the face-processing deficits associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is that they arise from a failure to develop normative levels of perceptual expertise. One indicator of perceptual expertise for faces is the own-age bias, operationalized as a processing advantage for faces of one's own age, presumably due to more frequent contact and experience. This effect is especially evident in domains of face recognition memory but less commonly investigated in social-emotional expertise (e.g., facial emotion recognition; FER), where individuals with ASD have shown consistent deficits. In the present study, we investigated whether a FER task would elicit an own-age bias for individuals with and without ASD and explored how the magnitude of an own-age bias may differ as a function of ASD status and symptoms. Ninety-two adolescents (63 male) between the ages of 11 and 14 years completed the child- and adult-face subtests of a standardized FER task. Overall FER accuracy was found to differ by ASD severity, reflecting poorer performance for those with increased symptoms. Results also indicated that an own-age bias was evident, reflecting greater FER performance for child compared to adult faces, for all adolescents regardless of ASD status or symptoms. However, the strength of the observed own-age bias did not differ by ASD status or severity. Findings suggest that face processing abilities of adolescents with ASD may be influenced by experience with specific categories of stimuli, similar to their typically developing peers.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Kathryn M. Hauschild
- Social Competence and Treatment Laboratory, Department of Psychology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, United States
| | - Peter Felsman
- Social Competence and Treatment Laboratory, Department of Psychology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, United States
- Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, United States
| | - Cara M. Keifer
- Social Competence and Treatment Laboratory, Department of Psychology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, United States
| | - Matthew D. Lerner
- Social Competence and Treatment Laboratory, Department of Psychology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, United States
- Department of Psychology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, United States
| |
Collapse
|
7
|
Hanley M, Riby DM, Derges MJ, Douligeri A, Philyaw Z, Ikeda T, Monden Y, Shimoizumi H, Yamagata T, Hirai M. Does culture shape face perception in autism? Cross-cultural evidence of the own-race advantage from the UK and Japan. Dev Sci 2020; 23:e12942. [PMID: 31981278 DOI: 10.1111/desc.12942] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/18/2018] [Revised: 11/07/2019] [Accepted: 12/30/2019] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are associated with face perception atypicalities, and atypical experience with faces has been proposed as an underlying explanation. Studying the own-race advantage (ORA) for face recognition can reveal the effect of experience on face perception in ASD, although the small number of studies in the area present mixed findings. This study probed the ORA in ASD by comparing two cultural groups simultaneously for the first time. Children with ASD in the UK (N = 16) and Japan (N = 26) were compared with age- and ability-matched typically developing (TD) children in the UK (N = 16) and Japan (N = 26). Participants completed a two-alternative forced-choice task, whereby they had to recognize a just seen face from a foil which was manipulated in one of four ways (IC: identity change; EE: easy eyes; HE: hard eyes; HM: hard mouth). Face stimuli were Asian and Caucasian, and thus the same stimuli were own and other race depending on the cultural group. The ASD groups in the UK and Japan did not show impaired face recognition abilities, or impairments with recognizing faces depending on manipulations to the eye region, and importantly they showed an ORA. There was considerable heterogeneity in the presence of the ORA in ASD and TD and also across cultures. Children in Japan had higher accuracy than children in the UK, and TD children in Japan did not show an ORA. This cross-cultural study challenges the view that atypical experiences with faces lead to a reduced/absent ORA in ASD.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Mary Hanley
- Department of Psychology, Durham University, Durham, UK.,Centre for Developmental Disorders, Durham University, Durham, UK
| | - Deborah M Riby
- Department of Psychology, Durham University, Durham, UK.,Centre for Developmental Disorders, Durham University, Durham, UK
| | | | | | | | - Takahiro Ikeda
- Department of Pediatrics, Jichi Medical University, Shimotsuke, Tochigi, Japan
| | - Yukifumi Monden
- Department of Pediatrics, Jichi Medical University, Shimotsuke, Tochigi, Japan.,International University of Health and Welfare Hospital, Nasushiobara, Tochigi, Japan
| | - Hideo Shimoizumi
- International University of Health and Welfare Rehabilitation Center, Nasu Institute for Developmental Disabilities, Otawara, Tochigi, Japan
| | - Takanori Yamagata
- Department of Pediatrics, Jichi Medical University, Shimotsuke, Tochigi, Japan
| | - Masahiro Hirai
- Center for Development of Advanced Medical Technology, Jichi Medical University, Shimotsuke, Tochigi, Japan.,Centre for Developmental Disorders, Durham University, Durham, UK
| |
Collapse
|
8
|
Liu X, Liang X, Feng C, Zhou G. Self-Construal Priming Affects Holistic Face Processing and Race Categorization, but Not Face Recognition. Front Psychol 2019; 10:1973. [PMID: 31507505 PMCID: PMC6718463 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01973] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/21/2019] [Accepted: 08/12/2019] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Self-construal priming can affect an individual’s cognitive processing. Participants who were primed with interdependent self-construal showed more holistic process bias than those who were primed with independent self-construal. The holistic processing of a face also differs across cultures. As such, the purpose of the present study was to explore whether the cultural differences in holistic face processing can be interpreted from the perspective of self-construal, as well as to investigate the relationship between self-construal and holistic face processing/face recognition/race categorization. In Experiment 1, participants were primed with control, interdependent, or independent self-construal, respectively, and then they completed a feature-space same-different task (Experiment 1A) or a composite face effect task (Experiment 1B). Results showed no priming effect in Experiment 1A, whereas independent self-construal priming resulted in less holistic processing in Experiment 1B. In Experiment 2, participants were primed with control, collective/interdependent, relational, or independent self-construal, respectively, and then they completed a Vanderbilt Holistic Face Processing Test and Cambridge Face Memory Test. Participants who were primed as independent showed greater congruency effect than the relational group. Self-construal priming had no effect on face recognition. In Experiment 3, we manipulated self-construal in the same way as that in Experiment 2 and monitored the eye movement of Chinese participants while they learned, recognized, and categorized their own-/other-race faces. Self-construal priming had no effect on face recognition. Compared with other groups, collective-/interdependent-self priming increased the fixation time of eyes and decreased the fixation time of nose in the race categorization task. These results indicated that the cultural differences in self-construal could not mirror the cultural differences in face processing in a simple way.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Xinge Liu
- Department of Psychology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Xingfen Liang
- Department of Psychology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Cong Feng
- Department of Philosophy, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Guomei Zhou
- Department of Psychology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.,Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Social Cognitive Neuroscience and Mental Health, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China
| |
Collapse
|
9
|
Howard PL, Zhang L, Benson V. What Can Eye Movements Tell Us about Subtle Cognitive Processing Differences in Autism? Vision (Basel) 2019; 3:E22. [PMID: 31735823 PMCID: PMC6802779 DOI: 10.3390/vision3020022] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/27/2019] [Revised: 05/15/2019] [Accepted: 05/18/2019] [Indexed: 01/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is neurodevelopmental condition principally characterised by impairments in social interaction and communication, and repetitive behaviours and interests. This article reviews the eye movement studies designed to investigate the underlying sampling or processing differences that might account for the principal characteristics of autism. Following a brief summary of a previous review chapter by one of the authors of the current paper, a detailed review of eye movement studies investigating various aspects of processing in autism over the last decade will be presented. The literature will be organised into sections covering different cognitive components, including language and social communication and interaction studies. The aim of the review will be to show how eye movement studies provide a very useful on-line processing measure, allowing us to account for observed differences in behavioural data (accuracy and reaction times). The subtle processing differences that eye movement data reveal in both language and social processing have the potential to impact in the everyday communication domain in autism.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Philippa L Howard
- Department of Psychology, Bournemouth University, Bournemouth BH12 5BB, UK
| | - Li Zhang
- Academy of Psychology and Behaviour, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300074, China
| | - Valerie Benson
- School of Psychology, University of Central Lancashire, Preston PR1 2HE, UK
| |
Collapse
|
10
|
Ewing L, Pellicano E, King H, Lennuyeux-Comnene L, Farran EK, Karmiloff-Smith A, Smith ML. Atypical information-use in children with autism spectrum disorder during judgments of child and adult face identity. Dev Neuropsychol 2018; 43:370-384. [PMID: 29558171 PMCID: PMC5964451 DOI: 10.1080/87565641.2018.1449846] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/19/2023]
Abstract
Unusual patterns of fixation behavior in individuals with autism spectrum disorder during face tasks hint at atypical processing strategies that could contribute to diminished face expertise in this group. Here, we use the Bubbles reverse correlation technique to directly examine face-processing strategies during identity judgments in children with and without autism, and typical adults. Results support a qualitative atypicality in autistic face processing. We identify clear differences not only in the specific features relied upon for face judgments, but also more generally in the extent to which they demonstrate a flexible and adaptive profile of information use.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Louise Ewing
- Department of Psychological Sciences, Birkbeck, University of London, London, Great Britain
- ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, School of Psychology, University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia
- School of Psychology, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, Great Britain
| | - Elizabeth Pellicano
- Centre for Research in Autism and Education (CRAE), UCL Institute of Education, University College London, London, Great Britain
- ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, School of Psychology, University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia
| | - Harriet King
- Centre for Research in Autism and Education (CRAE), UCL Institute of Education, University College London, London, Great Britain
| | | | - Emily K Farran
- UCL Institute of Education, University College London, London, Great Britain
| | | | - Marie L Smith
- Department of Psychological Sciences, Birkbeck, University of London, London, Great Britain
| |
Collapse
|
11
|
Sankar A, Costafreda SG, Marangell LB, Fu CH. Other race effect on amygdala response during affective facial processing in major depression. Neurosci Lett 2018; 662:381-384. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neulet.2017.10.043] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/12/2017] [Revised: 10/16/2017] [Accepted: 10/20/2017] [Indexed: 12/01/2022]
|
12
|
Hessels RS, Kemner C, van den Boomen C, Hooge ITC. The area-of-interest problem in eyetracking research: A noise-robust solution for face and sparse stimuli. Behav Res Methods 2016; 48:1694-1712. [PMID: 26563395 PMCID: PMC5101255 DOI: 10.3758/s13428-015-0676-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 86] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/11/2022]
Abstract
A problem in eyetracking research is choosing areas of interest (AOIs): Researchers in the same field often use widely varying AOIs for similar stimuli, making cross-study comparisons difficult or even impossible. Subjective choices while choosing AOIs cause differences in AOI shape, size, and location. On the other hand, not many guidelines for constructing AOIs, or comparisons between AOI-production methods, are available. In the present study, we addressed this gap by comparing AOI-production methods in face stimuli, using data collected with infants and adults (with autism spectrum disorder [ASD] and matched controls). Specifically, we report that the attention-attracting and attention-maintaining capacities of AOIs differ between AOI-production methods, and that this matters for statistical comparisons in one of three groups investigated (the ASD group). In addition, we investigated the relation between AOI size and an AOI's attention-attracting and attention-maintaining capacities, as well as the consequences for statistical analyses, and report that adopting large AOIs solves the problem of statistical differences between the AOI methods. Finally, we tested AOI-production methods for their robustness to noise, and report that large AOIs-using the Voronoi tessellation method or the limited-radius Voronoi tessellation method with large radii-are most robust to noise. We conclude that large AOIs are a noise-robust solution in face stimuli and, when implemented using the Voronoi method, are the most objective of the researcher-defined AOIs. Adopting Voronoi AOIs in face-scanning research should allow better between-group and cross-study comparisons.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Roy S Hessels
- Department of Experimental Psychology, Helmholtz Institute, Utrecht University, Heidelberglaan 1, 3584CS, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
- Department of Developmental Psychology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
| | - Chantal Kemner
- Department of Experimental Psychology, Helmholtz Institute, Utrecht University, Heidelberglaan 1, 3584CS, Utrecht, The Netherlands
- Department of Developmental Psychology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
- Brain Center Rudolf Magnus, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University Medical Centre Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - Carlijn van den Boomen
- Department of Experimental Psychology, Helmholtz Institute, Utrecht University, Heidelberglaan 1, 3584CS, Utrecht, The Netherlands
- Department of Developmental Psychology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - Ignace T C Hooge
- Department of Experimental Psychology, Helmholtz Institute, Utrecht University, Heidelberglaan 1, 3584CS, Utrecht, The Netherlands
| |
Collapse
|
13
|
Arunachalam S, Luyster RJ. The integrity of lexical acquisition mechanisms in autism spectrum disorders: A research review. Autism Res 2016; 9:810-28. [PMID: 26688218 PMCID: PMC4916034 DOI: 10.1002/aur.1590] [Citation(s) in RCA: 51] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/20/2015] [Accepted: 11/15/2015] [Indexed: 01/19/2023]
Abstract
Research on autism spectrum disorders (ASD) has rapidly expanded in recent years, yielding important developments in both theory and practice. While we have gained important insights into how children with ASD differ from typically developing (TD) children in terms of phenotypic features, less has been learned about if and how development in ASD differs from typical development in terms of underlying mechanisms of change. This article aims to provide a review of processes subserving lexical development in ASD, with the goal of identifying contributing factors to the heterogeneity of language outcomes in ASD. The focus is on available evidence of the integrity or disruption of these mechanisms in ASD, as well as their significance for vocabulary development; topics include early speech perception and preference, speech segmentation, word learning, and category formation. Significant gaps in the literature are identified and future directions are suggested. Autism Res 2016, 9: 810-828. © 2015 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Sudha Arunachalam
- Dept. of Speech, Language & Hearing Sciences, Boston University, 635 Commonwealth Ave., Boston, MA 02215
| | - Rhiannon J. Luyster
- Communication Sciences and Disorders, Emerson College, 120 Boylston St., Boston, MA 02116
| |
Collapse
|
14
|
Li P, Zhang C, Yi L. Brief Report: Sensitivity of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders to Face Appearance in Selective Trust. J Autism Dev Disord 2016; 46:2520-5. [PMID: 26936158 DOI: 10.1007/s10803-016-2761-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
The current study examined how children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) could selectively trust others based on three facial cues: the face race, attractiveness, and trustworthiness. In a computer-based hide-and-seek game, two face images, which differed significantly in one of the three facial cues, were presented as two cues for selective trust. Children had to selectively trust the own-race, attractive and trustworthy faces to get the prize. Our findings demonstrate an intact ability of selective trust based on face appearance in ASD compared to typical children: they could selectively trust the informant based on face race and attractiveness. Our results imply that despite their face recognition deficits, children with ASD are still sensitive to some aspects of face appearance.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Pengli Li
- Department of Psychology, Sun Yat-sen University, 135 Xingang West Road, Guangzhou, 510275, Guangdong, China
| | - Chunhua Zhang
- Qingdao Autism Research Institute, 7 Jinsong Seven Road, Qingdao, 266000, Shandong, China
| | - Li Yi
- Department of Psychology and Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, Peking University, 5 Yiheyuan Road, Beijing, 100871, China.
| |
Collapse
|
15
|
Neil L, Cappagli G, Karaminis T, Jenkins R, Pellicano E. Recognizing the same face in different contexts: Testing within-person face recognition in typical development and in autism. J Exp Child Psychol 2016; 143:139-53. [PMID: 26615971 PMCID: PMC4722798 DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2015.09.029] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/02/2015] [Revised: 09/25/2015] [Accepted: 09/28/2015] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
Unfamiliar face recognition follows a particularly protracted developmental trajectory and is more likely to be atypical in children with autism than those without autism. There is a paucity of research, however, examining the ability to recognize the same face across multiple naturally varying images. Here, we investigated within-person face recognition in children with and without autism. In Experiment 1, typically developing 6- and 7-year-olds, 8- and 9-year-olds, 10- and 11-year-olds, 12- to 14-year-olds, and adults were given 40 grayscale photographs of two distinct male identities (20 of each face taken at different ages, from different angles, and in different lighting conditions) and were asked to sort them by identity. Children mistook images of the same person as images of different people, subdividing each individual into many perceived identities. Younger children divided images into more perceived identities than adults and also made more misidentification errors (placing two different identities together in the same group) than older children and adults. In Experiment 2, we used the same procedure with 32 cognitively able children with autism. Autistic children reported a similar number of identities and made similar numbers of misidentification errors to a group of typical children of similar age and ability. Fine-grained analysis using matrices revealed marginal group differences in overall performance. We suggest that the immature performance in typical and autistic children could arise from problems extracting the perceptual commonalities from different images of the same person and building stable representations of facial identity.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Louise Neil
- Centre for Research in Autism and Education (CRAE), UCL Institute of Education, University College London, London WC1H 0NU, UK.
| | - Giulia Cappagli
- Centre for Research in Autism and Education (CRAE), UCL Institute of Education, University College London, London WC1H 0NU, UK; Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, 16163 Genova, Italy
| | - Themelis Karaminis
- Centre for Research in Autism and Education (CRAE), UCL Institute of Education, University College London, London WC1H 0NU, UK
| | - Rob Jenkins
- Department of Psychology, University of York, York YO10 5DD, UK
| | - Elizabeth Pellicano
- Centre for Research in Autism and Education (CRAE), UCL Institute of Education, University College London, London WC1H 0NU, UK; School of Psychology, University of Western Australia, Crawley, Perth, Western Australia 6009, Australia
| |
Collapse
|
16
|
Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder scan own-race faces differently from other-race faces. J Exp Child Psychol 2016; 141:177-86. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2015.09.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/01/2015] [Revised: 09/14/2015] [Accepted: 09/14/2015] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
|