title: Perception of pointing from biological motion point-light displays in typically developing children and children with autism spectrum disorder.
abstract: We examined whether the movement involved in a pointing gesture, depicted using point-light displays, is sufficient to cue attention in typically developing children (TD) and children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) (aged 8-11 years). Using a Posner-type paradigm, a centrally located display indicated the location of a forthcoming target on 80% of trials and the opposite location on 20% of trials. TD children, but not children with ASD, were faster to identify a validly cued target than an invalidly cued target. A scrambled version of the point-light pointing gesture, retaining individual dot speed and direction of movement but not the configuration, produced no validity effect in either group. A video of a pointing gesture produced validity effects in both groups.
authors.affiliation: Developmental Science, Division of Psychology and Language Science, University College London, Chandler House, 2 Wakefield Street, London, WC1N 1PF, UK. j.swettenham@ucl.ac.uk
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Swettenham
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Remington
authors.forename: Katherine
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Laing
authors.forename: Rosemary
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Fletcher
authors.forename: Mike
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Coleman
authors.forename: Juan-Carlos
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Gomez
mesh_terms: D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development / Q000502:physiology*; D002659:Child Development Disorders, Pervasive / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D003463:Cues; D005385:Fingers; D006225:Hand; D006801:Humans; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D012938:Social Perception; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology*