Low Fidelity Imitation of Atypical Biological Kinematics in Autism Spectrum Disorders Is Modulated by Self-Generated Selective Attention.
We examined whether adults with autism had difficulty imitating atypical biological kinematics. To reduce the impact that higher-order processes have on imitation we used a non-human agent model to control social attention, and removed end-state target goals in half of the trials to minimise goal-directed attention. Findings showed that only neurotypical adults imitated atypical biological kinematics. Adults with autism did, however, become significantly more accurate at imitating movement time. This confirmed they engaged in the task, and that sensorimotor adaptation was self-regulated. The attentional bias to movement time suggests the attenuation in imitating kinematics might be a compensatory strategy due to deficits in lower-level visuomotor processes associated with self-other mapping, or selective attention modulated the processes that represent biological kinematics.
Brain and Behaviour Laboratory, Faculty of Science, Research Institute for Sport and Exercise Sciences, Liverpool John Moores University, Byrom Street, Liverpool, L3 3AF, UK. s.hayes@ljmu.ac.uk.
Spencer J
SJ
Hayes
Brain and Behaviour Laboratory, Faculty of Science, Research Institute for Sport and Exercise Sciences, Liverpool John Moores University, Byrom Street, Liverpool, L3 3AF, UK.
Matthew
M
Andrew
Brain and Behaviour Laboratory, Faculty of Science, Research Institute for Sport and Exercise Sciences, Liverpool John Moores University, Byrom Street, Liverpool, L3 3AF, UK.|Department of Kinesiology, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada.
Digby
D
Elliott
Faculty of Life Sciences, The University of Manchester, Manchester, UK.
Emma
E
Gowen
Brain and Behaviour Laboratory, Faculty of Science, Research Institute for Sport and Exercise Sciences, Liverpool John Moores University, Byrom Street, Liverpool, L3 3AF, UK.
Simon J
SJ
Bennett
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007100:Imitative Behavior; D008297:Male; D055815:Young Adult
Attention; Autism spectrum disorders; Biological motion kinematics; Imitation