title: Involuntary interpretation of social cues is compromised in autism spectrum disorders.
abstract: A new social distance judgment task was used to measure quantitatively the extent to which social cues are immediately and involuntary interpreted by typically developing (TD) individuals and by individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The task thus tapped into the ability to involuntary "pick up" the meaning of social cues. The cues tested were social attention and implied biological motion. Task performance of the ASD and TD groups was similarly affected by a perceptual low-level illusion induced by physical characteristics of the stimuli. In contrast, a high-level illusion induced by the implications of the social cues affected only the TD individuals; the ASD individuals remained unaffected (causing them to perform superior to TD controls). The results indicate that despite intact perceptual processing, the immediate involuntary interpretation of social cues can be compromised. We propose that this type of social cue understanding is a distinct process that should be differentiated from reflective social cue understanding and is specifically compromised in ASD. We discuss evidence for an underpinning neural substrate.
authors.affiliation: Hull University, Department of Psychology, Hull, East Yorkshire, United Kingdom. T.Jellema@hull.ac.uk
authors.forename: Tjeerd
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Jellema
authors.forename: Jeannette
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lorteije
authors.forename: Sophie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: van Rijn
authors.forename: Mascha
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: van t' Wout
authors.forename: Edward
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: de Haan
authors.forename: Herman
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: van Engeland
authors.forename: Chantal
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kemner
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D020817:Asperger Syndrome / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D001288:Attention; D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007600:Judgment; D008297:Male; D009903:Optical Illusions; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D010469:Perceptual Distortion; D018187:Personal Construct Theory; D012929:Psychological Distance; D012016:Reference Values; D012938:Social Perception; D055815:Young Adult