Böckler Anne, Timmermans Bert, Sebanz Natalie, Vogeley Kai, Schilbach Leonhard
Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands,
J Autism Dev Disord. 2014 Jul;44(7):1651-8. doi: 10.1007/s10803-014-2038-5.
Observing eye contact between others enhances the tendency to subsequently follow their gaze and has been suggested to function as a social signal that adds meaning to an upcoming action or event. The present study investigated effects of observed eye contact in high-functioning autism (HFA). Two faces on a screen either looked at or away from each other before providing congruent or incongruent gaze cues to one of two target locations. In contrast to control participants, HFA participants did not depict enhanced gaze following after observing eye contact. Individuals with autism, hence, do not seem to process observed mutual gaze as a social signal indicating the relevance of upcoming (gaze) behaviour. This may be based on the reduced tendency of individuals with HFA to engage in social gaze behavior themselves, and might underlie some of the characteristic deficiencies in social communicative behaviour in autism.
观察他人之间的眼神交流会增强随后跟随他们目光的倾向，并且有人认为这是一种社会信号，能为即将发生的动作或事件增添意义。本研究调查了高功能自闭症（HFA）中观察到的眼神交流的影响。屏幕上的两张脸在向两个目标位置之一提供一致或不一致的目光线索之前，要么相互对视，要么看向别处。与对照组参与者不同，HFA参与者在观察到眼神交流后并没有表现出增强的目光跟随。因此，自闭症患者似乎没有将观察到的相互注视视为一种表明即将发生（注视）行为相关性的社会信号。这可能是基于HFA患者自身参与社会注视行为的倾向降低，并且可能是自闭症社会交往行为中一些典型缺陷的潜在原因。
