Papers

International journal
Oct, 2014

Absence of preferential unconscious processing of eye contact in adolescents with autism spectrum disorder

Autism Research
  • Hironori Akechi
  • ,
  • Timo Stein
  • ,
  • Atsushi Senju
  • ,
  • Yukiko Kikuchi
  • ,
  • Yoshikuni Tojo
  • ,
  • Hiroo Osanai
  • ,
  • Toshikazu Hasegawa

Volume
7
Number
5
First page
590
Last page
597
Language
English
Publishing type
Research paper (scientific journal)
DOI
10.1002/aur.1397
Publisher
Wiley

Eye contact plays an essential role in social interaction. Atypical eye contact is a diagnostic and widely reported feature of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Here, we determined whether altered unconscious visual processing of eye contact might underlie atypical eye contact in ASD. Using continuous flash suppression (CFS), we found that typically developing (TD) adolescents detected faces with a direct gaze faster than faces with an averted gaze, indicating enhanced unconscious processing of eye contact. Critically, adolescents with ASD did not show different durations of perceptual suppression for faces with direct and averted gaze, suggesting that preferential unconscious processing of eye contact is absent in this group. In contrast, in a non-CFS control experiment, both adolescents with ASD and TD adolescents detected faces with a direct gaze faster than those with an averted gaze. Another CFS experiment confirmed that unconscious processing of non-social stimuli is intact for adolescents with ASD. These results suggest that atypical processing of eye contact in individuals with ASD could be related to a weaker initial, unconscious registration of eye contact.

Link information
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.1397
PubMed
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24962761
ID information
  • DOI : 10.1002/aur.1397
  • ISSN : 1939-3792
  • ORCID - Put Code : 95560879
  • Pubmed ID : 24962761

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