Neurotypical, but not autistic, adults might experience distress when looking at someone avoiding eye contact: A live face-to-face paradigm / Elise CLIN in Autism, 27-7 (October 2023)  

Public ISBD [article]  inAutism > 27-7 (October 2023) . - p.1949-1959 Titre : Neurotypical, but not autistic, adults might experience distress when looking at someone avoiding eye contact: A live face-to-face paradigm Type de document : Texte imprimé et/ou numérique Auteurs : Elise CLIN, Auteur ; Mikhail KISSINE, Auteur Article en page(s) : p.1949-1959 Langues : Anglais (eng) Mots-clés : adults  alexithymia  autism  double empathy problem  electrodermal activity  eye contact  hyper- and hypo-arousal  live eye-tracking  social anxiety  social attention Index. décimale : PER Périodiques Résumé : Many autistics report being distressed by eye contact, but eye-tracking studies suggest that eye contact is associated with hypo-arousal rather than hyper-arousal in autism. Within a live face-to-face paradigm combining a wearable eye-tracker with electrodermal activity sensors, 80 adults (40 autistics) defined words in front of an experimenter either staring at their eyes (direct gaze condition) or looking elsewhere (averted gaze condition). Autistics did not differ from neurotypicals in their eye behaviours nor their skin conductance responses. Autistics did not appear distressed when they were looking at the experimenter?s eyes in the direct gaze condition. However, neurotypicals, compared to autistics, might experience more stress when looking at the experimenter in the averted gaze condition, even after controlling for social anxiety and alexithymia. In comparison to autistics, neurotypicals might be hyper-aroused when they look at someone avoiding eye contact. Based on a bidirectional perspective on interactional difficulties in autism, we speculate that the neurotypicals' distress when their attempts to eye contact are not reciprocated could make their behaviour insistent, which, in turn, could make the autistics uncomfortable. In our study, participants' partner remained passive, displaying no specific reaction when a mutual gaze was shared or not. Future studies should test different partner reactions to gaze in various social contexts.Lay abstractWhat is already known about the topic?Autistics are usually reported to share less eye contact than neurotypicals with their interlocutors. However, the reason why autistics might pay less attention to eyes looking at them is still unknown: some autistics express being hyper-aroused by this eye contact, while some eye-tracking studies suggest that eye contact is associated with hypo-arousal in autism.What this paper adds?This study is based on a highly controlled live face-to-face paradigm, combining a wearable eye-tracker (to study eye behaviours) with electrodermal activity sensors (to assess potential stress). We draw a nuanced picture of social attention in autism, as our autistic participants did not differ from our neurotypical group in their eye behaviours nor their skin conductance responses. However, we found that neurotypicals, compared to autistics, seemed to be much more distressed when their interlocutor did not gaze at them during the experiment.Implications for practice, research or policy:Our study encourages to consider social interaction difficulties in autism as a relational issue, instead as an individual deficit. This step might be first taken in research, by implementing paradigms sensitive to the experimenter?s role and attitude. En ligne : http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/13623613221148553 Permalink : https://www.cra-rhone-alpes.org/cid/opac_css/index.php?lvl=notice_display&id=510 [article] Neurotypical, but not autistic, adults might experience distress when looking at someone avoiding eye contact: A live face-to-face paradigm [Texte imprimé et/ou numérique] / Elise CLIN, Auteur ; Mikhail KISSINE, Auteur . - p.1949-1959. Langues : Anglais (eng) in Autism > 27-7 (October 2023) . - p.1949-1959 Mots-clés : adults  alexithymia  autism  double empathy problem  electrodermal activity  eye contact  hyper- and hypo-arousal  live eye-tracking  social anxiety  social attention Index. décimale : PER Périodiques Résumé : Many autistics report being distressed by eye contact, but eye-tracking studies suggest that eye contact is associated with hypo-arousal rather than hyper-arousal in autism. Within a live face-to-face paradigm combining a wearable eye-tracker with electrodermal activity sensors, 80 adults (40 autistics) defined words in front of an experimenter either staring at their eyes (direct gaze condition) or looking elsewhere (averted gaze condition). Autistics did not differ from neurotypicals in their eye behaviours nor their skin conductance responses. Autistics did not appear distressed when they were looking at the experimenter?s eyes in the direct gaze condition. However, neurotypicals, compared to autistics, might experience more stress when looking at the experimenter in the averted gaze condition, even after controlling for social anxiety and alexithymia. In comparison to autistics, neurotypicals might be hyper-aroused when they look at someone avoiding eye contact. Based on a bidirectional perspective on interactional difficulties in autism, we speculate that the neurotypicals' distress when their attempts to eye contact are not reciprocated could make their behaviour insistent, which, in turn, could make the autistics uncomfortable. In our study, participants' partner remained passive, displaying no specific reaction when a mutual gaze was shared or not. Future studies should test different partner reactions to gaze in various social contexts.Lay abstractWhat is already known about the topic?Autistics are usually reported to share less eye contact than neurotypicals with their interlocutors. However, the reason why autistics might pay less attention to eyes looking at them is still unknown: some autistics express being hyper-aroused by this eye contact, while some eye-tracking studies suggest that eye contact is associated with hypo-arousal in autism.What this paper adds?This study is based on a highly controlled live face-to-face paradigm, combining a wearable eye-tracker (to study eye behaviours) with electrodermal activity sensors (to assess potential stress). We draw a nuanced picture of social attention in autism, as our autistic participants did not differ from our neurotypical group in their eye behaviours nor their skin conductance responses. However, we found that neurotypicals, compared to autistics, seemed to be much more distressed when their interlocutor did not gaze at them during the experiment.Implications for practice, research or policy:Our study encourages to consider social interaction difficulties in autism as a relational issue, instead as an individual deficit. This step might be first taken in research, by implementing paradigms sensitive to the experimenter?s role and attitude. En ligne : http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/13623613221148553 Permalink : https://www.cra-rhone-alpes.org/cid/opac_css/index.php?lvl=notice_display&id=510

No preference for direct versus averted gaze in autistic adults: a reinforced preferential looking paradigm / Elise CLIN in Molecular Autism, 11 (2020)  

Public ISBD [article]  inMolecular Autism > 11 (2020) Titre : No preference for direct versus averted gaze in autistic adults: a reinforced preferential looking paradigm Type de document : Texte imprimé et/ou numérique Auteurs : Elise CLIN, Auteur ; Pauline MAES, Auteur ; Fanny STERCQ, Auteur ; Mikhail KISSINE, Auteur Langues : Anglais (eng) Mots-clés : Adults  Alexithymia  Autism  Eye gaze direction  Eye-tracking  Gender  Reinforced preferential looking paradigm  Social anxiety  Social attention  or publication of this article. Index. décimale : PER Périodiques Résumé : BACKGROUND: With the overarching objective to gain better insights into social attention in autistic adults, the present study addresses three outstanding issues about face processing in autism. First, do autistic adults display a preference for mouths over eyes; second, do they avoid direct gaze; third, is atypical visual exploration of faces in autism mediated by gender, social anxiety or alexithymia? METHODS: We used a novel reinforced preferential looking paradigm with a group of autistic adults (n?=?43, 23 women) pairwise matched on age with neurotypical participants (n?=?43, 21 women). Participants watched 28 different pairs of 5 s video recordings of a speaking person: the two videos, simultaneously displayed on the screen, were identical except that gaze was directed at the camera in one video and averted in the other. After a 680 ms transition phase, a short reinforcement animation appeared on the side that had displayed the direct gaze. RESULTS: None of the groups showed a preference for mouths over eyes. However, neurotypical participants fixated significantly more the stimuli with direct gaze, while no such preference emerged in autistic participants. As the experiment progressed, neurotypical participants also increasingly anticipated the appearance of the reinforcement, based on the location of the stimulus with the direct gaze, while no such anticipation emerged in autistic participants. LIMITATIONS: Our autistic participants scored higher on the social anxiety and alexithymia questionnaires than neurotypicals. Future studies should match neurotypical and autistic participants on social anxiety and alexithymia and complement questionnaires with physiological measures of anxiety. CONCLUSIONS: The absence of preference for direct versus averted gaze in the autistic group is probably due to difficulties in distinguishing eye gaze direction, potentially linked to a reduced spontaneous exploration or avoidance of the eye region. Social attention and preference for direct versus averted gaze correlated with alexithymia and social anxiety scores, but not gender. En ligne : http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13229-020-00398-3 Permalink : https://www.cra-rhone-alpes.org/cid/opac_css/index.php?lvl=notice_display&id=438 [article] No preference for direct versus averted gaze in autistic adults: a reinforced preferential looking paradigm [Texte imprimé et/ou numérique] / Elise CLIN, Auteur ; Pauline MAES, Auteur ; Fanny STERCQ, Auteur ; Mikhail KISSINE, Auteur. Langues : Anglais (eng) in Molecular Autism > 11 (2020) Mots-clés : Adults  Alexithymia  Autism  Eye gaze direction  Eye-tracking  Gender  Reinforced preferential looking paradigm  Social anxiety  Social attention  or publication of this article. Index. décimale : PER Périodiques Résumé : BACKGROUND: With the overarching objective to gain better insights into social attention in autistic adults, the present study addresses three outstanding issues about face processing in autism. First, do autistic adults display a preference for mouths over eyes; second, do they avoid direct gaze; third, is atypical visual exploration of faces in autism mediated by gender, social anxiety or alexithymia? METHODS: We used a novel reinforced preferential looking paradigm with a group of autistic adults (n?=?43, 23 women) pairwise matched on age with neurotypical participants (n?=?43, 21 women). Participants watched 28 different pairs of 5 s video recordings of a speaking person: the two videos, simultaneously displayed on the screen, were identical except that gaze was directed at the camera in one video and averted in the other. After a 680 ms transition phase, a short reinforcement animation appeared on the side that had displayed the direct gaze. RESULTS: None of the groups showed a preference for mouths over eyes. However, neurotypical participants fixated significantly more the stimuli with direct gaze, while no such preference emerged in autistic participants. As the experiment progressed, neurotypical participants also increasingly anticipated the appearance of the reinforcement, based on the location of the stimulus with the direct gaze, while no such anticipation emerged in autistic participants. LIMITATIONS: Our autistic participants scored higher on the social anxiety and alexithymia questionnaires than neurotypicals. Future studies should match neurotypical and autistic participants on social anxiety and alexithymia and complement questionnaires with physiological measures of anxiety. CONCLUSIONS: The absence of preference for direct versus averted gaze in the autistic group is probably due to difficulties in distinguishing eye gaze direction, potentially linked to a reduced spontaneous exploration or avoidance of the eye region. Social attention and preference for direct versus averted gaze correlated with alexithymia and social anxiety scores, but not gender. En ligne : http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13229-020-00398-3 Permalink : https://www.cra-rhone-alpes.org/cid/opac_css/index.php?lvl=notice_display&id=438

Voice pitch and gender in autism / Mikhail KISSINE in Autism, 29-3 (March 2025)  

Public ISBD [article]  inAutism > 29-3 (March 2025) . - p.815-820 Titre : Voice pitch and gender in autism Type de document : Texte imprimé et/ou numérique Auteurs : Mikhail KISSINE, Auteur ; Elise CLIN, Auteur Article en page(s) : p.815-820 Langues : Anglais (eng) Index. décimale : PER Périodiques Résumé : Autistic adults are often perceived as having an atypical speech. The acoustic characteristics of these impressions prove surprisingly difficult to delineate, but one feature that does robustly emerge across different studies is higher pitch (F0 values) ... En ligne : https://dx.doi.org/10.1177/13623613241287973 Permalink : https://www.cra-rhone-alpes.org/cid/opac_css/index.php?lvl=notice_display&id=550 [article] Voice pitch and gender in autism [Texte imprimé et/ou numérique] / Mikhail KISSINE, Auteur ; Elise CLIN, Auteur . - p.815-820. Langues : Anglais (eng) in Autism > 29-3 (March 2025) . - p.815-820 Index. décimale : PER Périodiques Résumé : Autistic adults are often perceived as having an atypical speech. The acoustic characteristics of these impressions prove surprisingly difficult to delineate, but one feature that does robustly emerge across different studies is higher pitch (F0 values) ... En ligne : https://dx.doi.org/10.1177/13623613241287973 Permalink : https://www.cra-rhone-alpes.org/cid/opac_css/index.php?lvl=notice_display&id=550

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