Simulating interaction: Using gaze-contingent eye-tracking to measure the reward value of social signals in toddlers with and without autism

Vernetti, Angelina, Senju, Atsushi, Charman, Tony, Johnson, Mark H and Gliga, Teodora and The BASIS Team (2018) Simulating interaction: Using gaze-contingent eye-tracking to measure the reward value of social signals in toddlers with and without autism. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 29. pp. 21-29. ISSN 1878-9293

Preview

PDF (DCN_Vernetti_etal) - Published Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution. Download (628kB) | Preview

Abstract

Several accounts have been proposed to explain difficulties with social interaction in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), amongst which atypical social orienting, decreased social motivation or difficulties with understanding the regularities driving social interaction. This study uses gaze-contingent eye-tracking to tease apart these accounts by measuring reward related behaviours in response to different social videos. Toddlers at high or low familial risk for ASD took part in this study at age 2 and were categorised at age 3 as low risk controls (LR), high-risk with no ASD diagnosis (HR-no ASD), or with a diagnosis of ASD (HR-ASD). When the on-demand social interaction was predictable, all groups, including the HR-ASD group, looked longer and smiled more towards a person greeting them compared to a mechanical Toy (Condition 1) and also smiled more towards a communicative over a non-communicative person (Condition 2). However, all groups, except the HR-ASD group, selectively oriented towards a person addressing the child in different ways over an invariant social interaction (Condition 3). These findings suggest that social interaction is intrinsically rewarding for individuals with ASD, but the extent to which it is sought may be modulated by the specific variability of naturalistic social interaction.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.
Uncontrolled Keywords:	physiology,physiopathology,child, preschool,communication,female,physiology,humans,interpersonal relations,male,motivation,play and playthings,reward,risk,smiling
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	09 Oct 2018 16:30
Last Modified:	03 Nov 2022 15:46
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/68457
DOI:	10.1016/j.dcn.2017.08.004

Downloads

Actions (login required)

View Item