Cargando…

Sensitivity to Social Contingency in Adults with High-Functioning Autism during Computer-Mediated Embodied Interaction

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) can be understood as a social interaction disorder. This makes the emerging “second-person approach” to social cognition a more promising framework for studying ASD than classical approaches focusing on mindreading capacities in detached, observer-based arrangements. A...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Zapata-Fonseca, Leonardo, Froese, Tom, Schilbach, Leonhard, Vogeley, Kai, Timmermans, Bert
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5836005/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29419758
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/bs8020022
_version_ 1783303891184517120
author Zapata-Fonseca, Leonardo
Froese, Tom
Schilbach, Leonhard
Vogeley, Kai
Timmermans, Bert
author_facet Zapata-Fonseca, Leonardo
Froese, Tom
Schilbach, Leonhard
Vogeley, Kai
Timmermans, Bert
author_sort Zapata-Fonseca, Leonardo
collection PubMed
description Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) can be understood as a social interaction disorder. This makes the emerging “second-person approach” to social cognition a more promising framework for studying ASD than classical approaches focusing on mindreading capacities in detached, observer-based arrangements. According to the second-person approach, embodied, perceptual, and embedded or interactive capabilities are also required for understanding others, and these are hypothesized to be compromised in ASD. We therefore recorded the dynamics of real-time sensorimotor interaction in pairs of control participants and participants with High-Functioning Autism (HFA), using the minimalistic human-computer interface paradigm known as “perceptual crossing” (PC). We investigated whether HFA is associated with impaired detection of social contingency, i.e., a reduced sensitivity to the other’s responsiveness to one’s own behavior. Surprisingly, our analysis reveals that, at least under the conditions of this highly simplified, computer-mediated, embodied form of social interaction, people with HFA perform equally well as controls. This finding supports the increasing use of virtual reality interfaces for helping people with ASD to better compensate for their social disabilities. Further dynamical analyses are necessary for a better understanding of the mechanisms that are leading to the somewhat surprising results here obtained.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-5836005
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2018
publisher MDPI
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-58360052018-03-07 Sensitivity to Social Contingency in Adults with High-Functioning Autism during Computer-Mediated Embodied Interaction Zapata-Fonseca, Leonardo Froese, Tom Schilbach, Leonhard Vogeley, Kai Timmermans, Bert Behav Sci (Basel) Article Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) can be understood as a social interaction disorder. This makes the emerging “second-person approach” to social cognition a more promising framework for studying ASD than classical approaches focusing on mindreading capacities in detached, observer-based arrangements. According to the second-person approach, embodied, perceptual, and embedded or interactive capabilities are also required for understanding others, and these are hypothesized to be compromised in ASD. We therefore recorded the dynamics of real-time sensorimotor interaction in pairs of control participants and participants with High-Functioning Autism (HFA), using the minimalistic human-computer interface paradigm known as “perceptual crossing” (PC). We investigated whether HFA is associated with impaired detection of social contingency, i.e., a reduced sensitivity to the other’s responsiveness to one’s own behavior. Surprisingly, our analysis reveals that, at least under the conditions of this highly simplified, computer-mediated, embodied form of social interaction, people with HFA perform equally well as controls. This finding supports the increasing use of virtual reality interfaces for helping people with ASD to better compensate for their social disabilities. Further dynamical analyses are necessary for a better understanding of the mechanisms that are leading to the somewhat surprising results here obtained. MDPI 2018-02-08 /pmc/articles/PMC5836005/ /pubmed/29419758 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/bs8020022 Text en © 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Zapata-Fonseca, Leonardo
Froese, Tom
Schilbach, Leonhard
Vogeley, Kai
Timmermans, Bert
Sensitivity to Social Contingency in Adults with High-Functioning Autism during Computer-Mediated Embodied Interaction
title Sensitivity to Social Contingency in Adults with High-Functioning Autism during Computer-Mediated Embodied Interaction
title_full Sensitivity to Social Contingency in Adults with High-Functioning Autism during Computer-Mediated Embodied Interaction
title_fullStr Sensitivity to Social Contingency in Adults with High-Functioning Autism during Computer-Mediated Embodied Interaction
title_full_unstemmed Sensitivity to Social Contingency in Adults with High-Functioning Autism during Computer-Mediated Embodied Interaction
title_short Sensitivity to Social Contingency in Adults with High-Functioning Autism during Computer-Mediated Embodied Interaction
title_sort sensitivity to social contingency in adults with high-functioning autism during computer-mediated embodied interaction
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5836005/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29419758
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/bs8020022
work_keys_str_mv AT zapatafonsecaleonardo sensitivitytosocialcontingencyinadultswithhighfunctioningautismduringcomputermediatedembodiedinteraction
AT froesetom sensitivitytosocialcontingencyinadultswithhighfunctioningautismduringcomputermediatedembodiedinteraction
AT schilbachleonhard sensitivitytosocialcontingencyinadultswithhighfunctioningautismduringcomputermediatedembodiedinteraction
AT vogeleykai sensitivitytosocialcontingencyinadultswithhighfunctioningautismduringcomputermediatedembodiedinteraction
AT timmermansbert sensitivitytosocialcontingencyinadultswithhighfunctioningautismduringcomputermediatedembodiedinteraction