Autism may hinder a person's ability to see and read body language, making it difficult to gauge other people's feelings.
Autism may hinder a person's ability to see and read body language, making it difficult to gauge other people's feelings.
Researchers from Britain compared 13 adults with autism spectrum disorder and 16 matched controls to find out whether the individuals with autism have difficulties in recognising emotions from body movement and direction of motion. All the participants were asked to identify emotions from the body movements and the direction of the movement of a group of dots on a computer screen.
It was found that adults with autism spectrum disorder had trouble identifying emotions, such as anger or happiness, while watching short video clips of body movements. The videos had no images of faces or sound. Those who had the most difficulty identifying emotions also did poorly on a task in which they had to determine the direction of a group of dots on a computer screen. Adults without autism generally performed well on both tests.
The researchers concluded that people with autism are less able to use these cues to make accurate judgments about how others are feeling and suggest that visual processing problems could contribute to the difficulties with social interaction experienced by people with autism.
Researchers from Britain compared 13 adults with autism spectrum disorder and 16 matched controls to find out whether the individuals with autism have difficulties in recognising emotions from body movement and direction of motion. All the participants were asked to identify emotions from the body movements and the direction of the movement of a group of dots on a computer screen.
It was found that adults with autism spectrum disorder had trouble identifying emotions, such as anger or happiness, while watching short video clips of body movements. The videos had no images of faces or sound. Those who had the most difficulty identifying emotions also did poorly on a task in which they had to determine the direction of a group of dots on a computer screen. Adults without autism generally performed well on both tests.
The researchers concluded that people with autism are less able to use these cues to make accurate judgments about how others are feeling and suggest that visual processing problems could contribute to the difficulties with social interaction experienced by people with autism.
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