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From Action to Interaction: Exploring the Contribution of Body Motion Cues to Social Understanding in Typical Development and in Autism Spectrum Disorders

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Abstract

Two studies investigated whether typically developing children (TD) and children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) were able to decide whether two characters were communicating or not on the basis of point-light displays. Point-lights portrayed actors engaged or not in a social interaction. In study 1, TD children (4–10 years old; n = 36) grasped social intentions from body language, with a notable improvement around 7/8. In study 2, children with ASD (6–12 years old; n = 12) could categorize the point-light displays at above-chance levels, but performed less efficiently, especially for the social interaction displays, than TD children (matched to chronological and non-verbal mental age, 6–12 years old; n = 24). An action representation deficit is discussed in relation to a social representation deficit and it is suggested that these deficits might be linked to altered maturational process of the mirror system in ASD.

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Acknowledgments

Laurie Centelles has been awarded a doctoral fellowship from the Orange Foundation. The authors wish to thank Marianne Vaugoyeau for assistance with stimuli build-up.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Equipe Développement et Pathologie de l’Action, Laboratoire Neurosciences Intégratives and Adaptatives, Université de Provence and Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Case B, 3 Place Victor Hugo, 13331, Marseille Cedex 03, France

    Laurie Centelles, Christine Assaiante & Christina Schmitz

  2. Pôle Universitaire de Psychiatrie de l’enfant et de l’adolescent, Centre Hospitalier Charles Perrens, 121 rue de la Béchade, 33076, Bordeaux Cedex, France

    Katallin Etchegoyhen & Manuel Bouvard

  3. Brain Dynamics and Cognition, Lyon Neuroscience Research Center INSERM U1028, CNRS UMR 5292, Centre Hospitalier Le Vinatier (Bât. 452), 95 Boulevard Pinel, 69675, Bron Cedex, France

    Christina Schmitz

  4. University Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Lyon, France

    Christina Schmitz

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  1. Laurie Centelles
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  2. Christine Assaiante
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  3. Katallin Etchegoyhen
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  4. Manuel Bouvard
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  5. Christina Schmitz
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Correspondence to Christina Schmitz.

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Centelles, L., Assaiante, C., Etchegoyhen, K. et al. From Action to Interaction: Exploring the Contribution of Body Motion Cues to Social Understanding in Typical Development and in Autism Spectrum Disorders. J Autism Dev Disord 43, 1140–1150 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-012-1655-0

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