Level of autistic traits in neurotypical adults predicts kinematic idiosyncrasies in their biological movements.

Introduction: Over the last decade of research, a notable connection between autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and unique motor system characteristics has been identified, which may influence social communication through distinct movement patterns. In this study, we investigated the potential for features of the broader autism phenotype to account for kinematic idiosyncrasies in social movements expressed by neurotypical individuals. Methods: Fifty-eight participants provided recordings of point-light displays expressing three basic emotions and completed the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ). We extracted kinematic metrics from the biological movements using computer vision and applied linear mixed-effects modeling to analyze the relationship between these kinematic metrics and AQ scores. Results: Our results revealed that individual differences in the total AQ scores, and the sub-scale scores, significantly predicted variations in kinematic metrics representing order, volume, and magnitude. Discussion: The results of this study suggest that autistic traits may intricately influence the movement expressions at the microlevel, highlighting the need for a more nuanced understanding of the potential endophenotypic characteristics associated with social movements in neurotypical individuals.

Oxytocin and 'social hyperthermia': Interaction with ß3-adrenergic receptor-mediated thermogenesis and significance for the expression of social behavior in male and female mice.

Oxytocin (OT) is a critical regulator of multiple facets of energy homeostasis, including brown adipose tissue (BAT) thermogenesis. Nevertheless, it is unclear what, if any, consequence the thermoregulatory and metabolic effects of OT have for the display of social behavior in adult rodents. Here, we examine the contribution of the OT receptor (OTR) and ß3 adrenergic receptor (ß3AR) to the increase in body temperature that typically accompanies social interaction (i.e., social hyperthermia; SH) and whether SH relates to the expression of social behavior in adult mice. Specifically, we examined how OTR antagonism via peripheral injection of L-368,899 (10 mg/kg) affects the expression of social behavior in C57BL/6J mice, in the presence of active/agonized versus antagonized ß3AR, the receptor known to mediate stress-induced BAT thermogenesis. After drug treatment and a 30 min delay, mice were provided a 10 min social interaction test with an unfamiliar, same-sex conspecific. We hypothesized that OTR and ß3AR/BAT interact to influence behavior during social interaction, with at least some effects of OT on social behavior dependent upon OT's thermal effects via ß3AR/BAT. We found that OTR-mediated temperature elevation is largely responsible for SH during social interaction in mice-albeit not substantially via ß3AR-dependent BAT thermogenesis. Further, our results reveal a complex relationship between OTR, ß3AR, social hyperthermia and the display of specific social behaviors, with SH most closely associated with anxiety and/or vigilance-related behaviors-that is, behaviors that antagonize or interfere with the initiation of close, non-agonistic social behavior.

Visual discrimination of delayed self-generated movement reveals the temporal limit of proprioceptive-visual intermodal integration.

This study examined the intermodal integration of visual-proprioceptive feedback via a novel visual discrimination task of delayed self-generated movement. Participants performed a goal-oriented task in which visual feedback was available only via delayed videos displayed on two monitors-each with different delay durations. During task performance, delay duration was varied for one of the videos in the pair relative to a standard delay, which was held constant. Participants were required to identify and use the video with the lesser delay to perform the task. Visual discrimination of the lesser-delayed video was examined under four conditions in which the standard delay was increased for each condition. A temporal limit for proprioceptive-visual intermodal integration of 3-5s was revealed by subjects' inability to reliably discriminate video pairs.

Metacognitive Awareness of Facial Affect in Higher-Functioning Children and Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Higher-functioning participants with and without autism spectrum disorder (ASD) viewed a series of face stimuli, made decisions regarding the affect of each face, and indicated their confidence in each decision. Confidence significantly predicted accuracy across all participants, but this relation was stronger for participants with typical development than participants with ASD. In the hierarchical linear modeling analysis, there were no differences in face processing accuracy between participants with and without ASD, but participants with ASD were more confident in their decisions. These results suggest that individuals with ASD have metacognitive impairments and are overconfident in face processing. Additionally, greater metacognitive awareness was predictive of better face processing accuracy, suggesting that metacognition may be a pivotal skill to teach in interventions.

Brief Report: Reduced Temporal-Central EEG Alpha Coherence During Joint Attention Perception in Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Although prior studies have demonstrated reduced resting state EEG coherence in adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), no studies have explored the nature of EEG coherence during joint attention. We examined the EEG coherence of the joint attention network in adolescents with and without ASD during congruent and incongruent joint attention perception and an eyes-open resting condition. Across conditions, adolescents with ASD showed reduced right hemisphere temporal-central alpha coherence compared to typically developing adolescents. Greater right temporal-central alpha coherence during joint attention was positively associated with social cognitive performance in typical development but not in ASD. These results suggest that, in addition to a resting state, EEG coherence during joint attention perception is reduced in ASD.

Developmental changes in the visual-proprioceptive integration threshold of children.

The ability to detect artificially induced visual-proprioceptive asynchrony reflects an awareness of the first-person experience of self-generated movement. The current study assessed children's (5- to 8-year-olds) and adults' ability to integrate asynchronous visual and proprioceptive stimulation by delaying the visual feedback of self-generated action in videos. Children and adults observed a monitor showing their movements of a joystick at varying delay durations and were then asked to make judgments on whether their movements appeared to be delayed or live. Children demonstrated age-related differences in their reporting of delay judgments across all delay conditions. Adults' performances on the same task exceeded those of children. The results of this study provide a mapping of visual-proprioceptive integration abilities in 5 to 8 year old children. The age-related increase in sensitivity to visual-proprioceptive asynchrony is suggestive of increasing sensitivity to the temporal properties of multisensory feedback of self-generated movement with development.

Developmental and individual differences on the P1 and N170 ERP components in children with and without autism.

The P1 and N170 components, two event-related potentials sensitive to face processing, were examined in response to faces and vehicles for children with autism and typical development. P1 amplitude decreased, P1 latency decreased, and N170 amplitude became more negative with age. Children with typical development had larger P1 amplitudes for inverted faces than upright faces, but children with autism did not show this pattern. Children with autism had longer N170 latencies than children with typical development. Smaller P1 amplitudes and more negative N170 amplitudes for upright faces were associated with better social skills for children with typical development.

The Critical Role of Temporal Synchrony in the Salience of Intersensory Redundancy During Prenatal Development.

We explored the amount and timing of temporal synchrony necessary to facilitate prenatal perceptual learning using an animal model, the bobwhite quail. Quail embryos were exposed to various audiovisual combinations of a bob-white maternal call paired with patterned light during the late stages of prenatal development and were tested postnatally for evidence of prenatal auditory learning of the familiarized call. Results revealed that a maternal call paired with a single pulse of light synchronized with one note of the five note call was sufficient to facilitate embryos' prenatal perceptual learning of the entire call. A synchronous note occurring at the onset of the call burst was most effective at facilitating learning. These findings highlight quail embryos' remarkable sensitivity to temporal synchrony and indicate its role in promoting learning of redundantly specified stimulus properties during prenatal development.

Bobwhite quail (Colinus virginianus) hatchlings track the direction of human gaze.

Gaze following allows individuals to detect the locus of attention of both conspecifics and other species. However, little is known about how this ability develops. We explored the emergence of bobwhite quail hatchlings' ability to track human gaze by assessing their avoidance behavior in an open arena under five testing conditions: (1) a Direct Gaze condition, in which an experimenter looking down was positioned above one of two approach areas; (2) a Gaze Follow condition in which an experimenter, positioned equidistant between two approach areas, directed his/her gaze towards one of the areas; (3) a Masked Gaze Follow condition, in which the experimenter wore a mask during the Gaze Follow test; (4) a Deprived Face Experience condition, in which hatchlings were deprived of experience with human faces prior to the Gaze Follow test; and (5) a Control condition in which no experimenter was present during testing. Results revealed that hatchlings from the Direct Gaze condition preferred the non-gazed approach area at all ages tested. Hatchlings from the Gaze Follow condition preferred the non-gazed approach area at 48 and 72 h, but not at 24 h of age. In contrast, hatchlings from the Masked Gaze Follow, Deprived Face and Control conditions did not prefer either approach area at any age tested. These results indicate that experience with human faces plays a key role in the rapid emergence of gaze following behavior in bobwhite quail hatchlings.

Prenatal exposure to temporal and spatial stimulus properties affects postnatal responsiveness to spatial contiguity in bobwhite quail chicks.

Little is known about how experiential factors guide and organize the development of intersensory perception. This study manipulated the amount of late prenatal and early postnatal experience with the temporal synchrony and spatial contiguity of audio-visual stimulation available to bobwhite quail embryos and hatchlings to explore this question. Results revealed that only embryos exposed to temporally synchronous and spatially contiguous audio-visual stimulation prior to hatching subsequently preferred spatially contiguous audio-visual maternal information following hatching, despite being denied postnatal visual experience. In contrast, embryos that did not receive exposure to both temporal synchrony and spatial contiguity (and were also denied postnatal visual experience) failed to show a preference for the spatial contiguity of maternal auditory and visual information following hatching. These results suggest that prenatal exposure to the amodal properties of temporal synchrony and spatial contiguity facilitate chicks' emerging sensitivity to the spatial contiguity of audio-visual information in the period following hatching.