In this article they talk about where people look when in social interactions. They measured Autistic people in their social competency compared to what they fixated on during social interactions. They did this through a new eye tracking device. They found that "individuals with autism focused two times more on the mouth region, two times less on the eye region, two times more on the body region, and two times more on the object region relative to age - and verbal IQ - matched controls." They also found that "fixation times on the mouth region and on the object region were strong predictors of social competence." Fixation time on the object region was associated with lower social adaptation and greater autistic social impairment. While, fixation time on the mouth region was associated with greater social adaptation and lower autistic social impairment.
Focusing on the eyes and the mouth are connected to being socially competent and this relates back to emotion by being able to recognize what emotions people are expressing through their facial expressions. When I was younger and even today, looking people in the eyes when having a conversation has always been an important aspect of having a conversation. This not only helps the person feel that they are being paid attention to, but also helps me interpret their emotions and some of the non-verbal cues they are expressing.
In this video, the woman is discussing how important the eyes are and how they can communicate different things, such as level as of interest. This goes back to eye contact and how important it can be in regards to social competency.
My questions are regarding the article itself:
1. They don't talk much about how different cultures could affect this. In some cultures it is disrespectful to look at someone at the eye if they are older than you. What would be important in these situations when trying to discern facial expressions?
2. My second question involves the fact that looking at the mouth region was associated with great social adaptation? Why is that? Is it because of trying to understand language?
-Meredith Lohn-Wiley
Discussion questions.
ReplyDelete1. Following Meredith's train of thought regarding cross cultural results, in some Muslim cultures, women are completely covered in traditional garments to the extent that their eyes at time are not even shown. How would these situations translate in terms of the results found by Klin et al.? Autistic children were found to pay more attention to the mouth, would the elimination of the mouth from the vision effect their attention even more? What would be the key differences between non-Autistic children who also rely greatly on facial features and Autistic children?
2. Finally, blind children for obvious reasons would not be able to pick up on any facial features during a social interaction. Have any studies been done on blind Autistic children and perceptive emotional responses? On a similar yet different note, because Autistic children fixate more on the mouth, are their abilities to read lips greater than non-Autistic children?
- Guillermo Wippold (gmw399)
What I found the most interesting about this study is that the results did not support the hypothesis that visual fixation on the eye region of the face served as indicators of social competency or disability. However, a significant effect was found between fixation on the mouth (positive effect: increased social competence) and on objects (negative effect: indicator of social disability). This finding calls into question the nature of autism as well as preconceived notions of what behavior is typical of individuals who are socially adept.
ReplyDeleteThe researchers referenced how autistic children generally show strong verbal competency. Does this greater aptitude for verbal cues have any implications for the finding of this study: do autistic individuals attend to the mouth because they have a predisposition to attend to verbal stimuli? Other studies could be conducted to further analyze the way autistic children respond to speech in an emotionally dependent manner. We learned about prosody and the developmental aspects of speech and emotion earlier in the semester. Would an autistic individual be able to interpret a sarcastic sentence, or one with a different meaning than the way it was spoken?
What areas of the brain are targeted in autism? I would be interested to know if these areas are implicated in other cognitive activities such as attention and emotion. Many deficits mentioned in the discussion seemed to pertain more to the attention system, rather than the emotional one. Given that it seems that autistic individuals have difficulty interpreting facial expressions and viewing the face as a whole, does autism target the area of the brain that is important for facial recognition? Furthermore, researchers stated that autistic individuals have difficulty with theory of mind, an important cornerstone in our development. Does this inability to interpret emotions of others stem from an inability to interpret facial expressions?
Meredith raises a good point about cultural differences. For instance, it can be considered rude to look an elder in the eyes in many Asian cultures; however, I think these cultural differences can be ignored because the 15 subjects were pooled from the same community, and therefore shared a culture.
ReplyDeleteIn the comments section, it is hypothesized that the increased oral fixation stems from an attempt to concentrate on the speaker's content, not the prosody. I would like to know how exaggerated or conversational this prosody was presented to the subjects. Furthermore, it is suggested that cues such as prosody were being ignored by those with autism. I would be interested to see the rates at which the subjects would be able to pick up on these cues having been shown only the top half of the speaker's face, therefore forcing the fixation to the eyes. Under these circumstances would the comprehension rates be lower, but the potential for recognition of non-literal cues be higher?
-John Merrifield
In the article the study talks about using adolescents and young adults with a mild case of autism for the experiment. What would happen if we tested older adults? Would their perception become increased over time and more accurate? (Fixating on eyes perhaps now instead of just the mouth) Or would it stay relatively the same?
ReplyDeleteAlso another question arises from the study of people with just autism. How does facial recognition vary with people with other types of disorders like schizophrenia, ADHD, etc. Do they have the same kinds of cues as autistic people or are they far different?