Alexithymia explains atypical spatiotemporal dynamics of eye gaze in autism
Alexithymia explains atypical spatiotemporal dynamics of eye gaze in autism
复制标题
DOI：
10.1016/j.cognition.2021.104710
复制
发表时间：
2021-04-13
期刊：
影响因子：
3.4
通讯作者：
Bird, Geoffrey
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Cuve, Helio Clemente;Castiello, Santiago;Bird, Geoffrey
情绪面部表情的识别在自闭症中被认为是非典型的。这种困难被认为是由于面部表情的视觉探索方式。然而，自闭症患者对情绪面孔的非典型视觉探索的证据是模棱两可的。我们建议，观察到，非典型的视觉探索的情绪面部表情是由于述情障碍，一个独特的，但经常共同发生的条件。在这项眼动追踪研究中，我们测试了述情障碍假说，使用一些最新的方法学进展，研究在几个情绪处理任务（情绪识别，强度判断，自由凝视）的眼睛凝视，在25名成年人，和45名没有自闭症。采用多层次多项式建模策略描述了眼睛注视对情绪面部表情的时空动态变化。传统和新的分析方法的证据表明，非典型凝视的眼睛是最好的预测述情障碍在自闭症和非自闭症患者。信息理论分析还揭示了不同的影响，任务的凝视模式作为述情障碍的功能，但不是自闭症。这些发现突出了自闭症个体非典型情绪处理的潜在因素，对情绪研究具有广泛的影响。
Recognition of emotional facial expressions is considered to be atypical in autism. This difficulty is thought to be due to the way that facial expressions are visually explored. Evidence for atypical visual exploration of emotional faces in autism is, however, equivocal. We propose that, where observed, atypical visual exploration of emotional facial expressions is due to alexithymia, a distinct but frequently co-occurring condition. In this eye-tracking study we tested the alexithymia hypothesis using a number of recent methodological advances to study eye gaze during several emotion processing tasks (emotion recognition, intensity judgements, free gaze), in 25 adults with, and 45 without, autism. A multilevel polynomial modelling strategy was used to describe the spatiotemporal dynamics of eye gaze to emotional facial expressions. Converging evidence from traditional and novel analysis methods revealed that atypical gaze to the eyes is best predicted by alexithymia in both autistic and nonautistic individuals. Information theoretic analyses also revealed differential effects of task on gaze patterns as a function of alexithymia, but not autism. These findings highlight factors underlying atypical emotion processing in autistic individuals, with wide-ranging implications for emotion research.