Inferring power and dominance from dyadic nonverbal interactions in autism spectrum disorder

Abstract

Research studies to date have revealed conflicting results with respect to the processing of nonverbal cues from social interactions in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Therefore, the aim of the present study was to investigate the contribution of two important factors for the perception of dyadic social interactions, namely (a) the movement contingency and (b) the spatial context. To this end, 26 adult participants with ASD and 26 age‐, sex‐, and IQ‐matched typically developed control participants observed animations presenting nonverbal interactions between two human virtual characters enacting power relationships. We manipulated (a) movement contingency by exchanging one of the two original agents with an agent from another dyad and (b) spatial context by changing agents' spatial orientation to a back‐to‐back position. Participants were asked to rate dominance and submissiveness of these agents. Results showed that the movement contingency manipulation affected accuracy and consistency of power perception and that the spatial context manipulation slowed down reaction times comparably in both groups. With regard to group differences, individuals with ASD were found to judge power relationships slower compared to control participants, potentially suggesting a more explicit processing style in ASD. Furthermore, the spatial context manipulation slowed down the reaction times more in the contingent compared to the non‐contingent conditions only in the ASD group. These findings contribute to the ongoing debate whether individuals with ASD have difficulties in understanding nonverbal cues in a dyadic context by suggesting that they do so in more subtle ways than previously investigated. Autism Res 2019, 12: 505–516 © 2019 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Lay Summary This study shows that the ability and speed of judging who is dominant in a social interaction depends on two factors: (a) whether their movements are matched and (b) whether they are facing each other or not. This is similarly the case for participants with and without autism. Interestingly, however, individuals with autism seem to judge generally slower, suggesting a more explicit processing style. The two factors seem to interact, suggesting that nonverbal processing difficulties are subtler than previously thought.

Reduced nonverbal interpersonal synchrony in autism spectrum disorder independent of partner diagnosis: a motion energy study

“…A study's sample size is halved given that all participants are studied in pairs and the unit of analysis is the dyad rather than the individual. While the sample size in the current study may seem small, it is comparable to or even higher than other sample sizes in both autism research [107,108] and IPS research [34,71,[109][110][111]. Nevertheless, it is important to note that, in order to compare between groups with sufficient power and to investigate associations with other variables more extensively, the present results would need to be replicated with a larger sample.…”

“…These authors find that, on an explicit verbal task of recounting a story in a diffusion chain of 8 individuals, ASD and typical groups were equally good at retaining the details of the story, whereas the MIXED group showed a steeper decline in detail retention. It is therefore important to highlight, given the difficulties of individuals with ASD with implicit but not explicit processing [107] that there may be differences in terms of coordination ability in ASD, depending on the domain of investigation.…”

Disrupted Social Hierarchy in Prenatally Valproate-Exposed Autistic-Like Rats

“…Even though ''awkwardness'' in social situations, struggling to recognize social rank in society are considered core symptoms of ASD, there is very limited scientific literature covering the topic of social dominance in ASD. However, a recent study shows that subjects living with ASD tend to judge dominance in a social interaction slower, indicating malfunctioning nonverbal processing (Kuschefski et al, 2019). There are some other indirect examples which stem from dysfunctional social hierarchy recognition in ASD.…”

A mouse model of Timothy syndrome exhibits altered social competitive dominance and inhibitory neuron development

“…The study of social dominance in ASD patients is still limited, and a few studies have suggested an atypical way of recognition in these patients when they were asked to judge who is dominant between two persons presented as schematic diagrams or animations [31,32]. Further, a series of studies reported dominant social phenotypes in multiple rodent models associated with ASD [33][34][35].…”