Becchio Cristina, Pierno Andrea, Mari Morena, Lusher Dean, Castiello Umberto
Centro di Scienza Cognitiva, Dipartimento di Psicologia, Università di Torino, Italy.
Brain. 2007 Sep;130(Pt 9):2401-11. doi: 10.1093/brain/awm171.
It has been proposed that motor contagion supplies the first step in mentalizing. Here, by using kinematic methods, we show that in contrast to normally developing children, children with autism seem to be immune to motor contagious processes. In the main experiment, involving twelve high-functioning autistic children (six males and six females, 10-13 years old, mean 11.1 years) and 12 normally developing controls (age and gender matched), two participants, a model and an observer, were seated facing each other at a table. The model was a normally developing child but the observer was either a normally developing or autistic child. The model was requested to grasp a stimulus or simply to gaze towards the target which could be presented alone or flanked by a distractor object. After watching the model, the observer was asked to grasp the object (always in the absence of the distractor). Despite the distractor being removed, the kinematics of normally developing children was affected by having observed an action performed in the presence of a distractor, thus revealing a transfer of interference from the model's action. Consistent with prior evidence, this transfer of interference effect was also present when the model simply looked at the target in the presence of the distractor object. In contrast, autistic children did not show any interference effect either from action or from gaze observation. A control experiment explored the importance of the information coming from the model's gaze pattern in eliciting the effects of motor contagion in normally developing children. In this case, the model was asked to fix their eyes on the target despite the presence of the distractor. Results highlight the importance of gaze direction in motor contagion, demonstrating that in normal children blocking the gaze prevented the transfer of interference. Altogether, these findings suggest that eye gaze plays a central role in eliciting motor contagion. We discuss these results in light of the deficit exhibited by children with autism in reading intentions from gaze.
有人提出，动作感染是心理化的第一步。在此，我们通过运动学方法表明，与正常发育的儿童不同，自闭症儿童似乎对动作感染过程具有免疫力。在主要实验中，涉及12名高功能自闭症儿童（6名男性和6名女性，年龄在10 - 13岁之间，平均11.1岁）和12名正常发育的对照组儿童（年龄和性别匹配），两名参与者，一名示范者和一名观察者，面对面坐在桌旁。示范者是一名正常发育的儿童，但观察者可以是正常发育的儿童或自闭症儿童。要求示范者抓住一个刺激物，或者只是看向目标，目标可以单独呈现，也可以在其两侧伴有干扰物。在观察示范者之后，要求观察者抓住物体（总是在没有干扰物的情况下）。尽管干扰物被移除，但正常发育儿童的运动学受到在有干扰物存在时观察到的动作的影响，从而揭示了干扰从示范者动作的转移。与先前的证据一致，当示范者在有干扰物的情况下只是看向目标时，这种干扰转移效应也存在。相比之下，自闭症儿童无论是从动作还是从注视观察中都没有表现出任何干扰效应。一项对照实验探讨了来自示范者注视模式的信息在引发正常发育儿童动作感染效应中的重要性。在这种情况下，要求示范者不管有没有干扰物都盯着目标。结果突出了注视方向在动作感染中的重要性，表明在正常儿童中阻断注视可防止干扰的转移。总之，这些发现表明目光注视在引发动作感染中起着核心作用。我们根据自闭症儿童在从目光中解读意图方面表现出的缺陷来讨论这些结果。
