title: Impairments of Social Motor Synchrony Evident in Autism Spectrum Disorder.
abstract: Social interactions typically involve movements of the body that become synchronized over time and both intentional and spontaneous interactional synchrony have been found to be an essential part of successful human interaction. However, our understanding of the importance of temporal dimensions of social motor synchrony in social dysfunction is limited. Here, we used a pendulum coordination paradigm to assess dynamic, process-oriented measures of social motor synchrony in adolescents with and without autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Our data indicate that adolescents with ASD demonstrate less synchronization in both spontaneous and intentional interpersonal coordination. Coupled oscillator modeling suggests that ASD participants assembled a synchronization dynamic with a weaker coupling strength, which corresponds to a lower sensitivity and decreased attention to the movements of the other person, but do not demonstrate evidence of a delay in information transmission. The implication of these findings for isolating an ASD-specific social synchronization deficit that could serve as an objective, bio-behavioral marker is discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Assumption College, Worcester MA, USA.
authors.forename: Paula
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Fitzpatrick
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester MA, USA.
authors.forename: Jean A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Frazier
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester MA, USA.
authors.forename: David M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Cochran
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester MA, USA.
authors.forename: Teresa
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Mitchell
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Assumption College, Worcester MA, USA.
authors.forename: Caitlin
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Coleman
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, College of the Holy Cross, Worcester MA, USA.
authors.forename: R C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Schmidt
keywords: autism spectrum disorders; coupled oscillators; social dynamic behavior; social dysfunction; social synchrony