title: Goal-directed and goal-less imitation in autism spectrum disorder.
abstract: To investigate how people with Autism are affected by the presence of goals during imitation, we conducted a study to measure movement kinematics and eye movements during the imitation of goal-directed and goal-less hand movements. Our results showed that a control group imitated changes in movement kinematics and increased the level that they tracked the hand with their eyes, in the goal-less compared to goal-direction condition. In contrast, the ASD group exhibited more goal-directed eye movements, and failed to modulate the observed movement kinematics successfully in either condition. These results increase the evidence for impaired goal-less imitation in ASD, and suggest that there is a reliance on goal-directed strategies for imitation in ASD, even in the absence of visual goals.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK. kelly.wild@manchester.ac.uk
authors.forename: Kelly S
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Wild
authors.forename: Ellen
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Poliakoff
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Jerrison
authors.forename: Emma
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Gowen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D020817:Asperger Syndrome / Q000523:psychology*; D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena / Q000502:physiology; D005133:Eye Movements / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006040:Goals; D006801:Humans; D007100:Imitative Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*