Autonomic Arousal to Direct Gaze Correlates with Social Impairments Among Children with ASD

Abstract

The present study investigated whether autonomic arousal to direct gaze is related to social impairments among children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Arousal was measured through skin conductance responses (SCR) while the participants (15 children with ASD and 16 control children) viewed a live face of another person. Impairments in social skills was assessed with the Developmental, Dimensional and Diagnostic Interview. The level of arousal enhancement to direct gaze in comparison to arousal to faces with averted gaze or closed eyes was positively associated with impairments in social skills (use of language and other social communication skills and use of gesture and non-verbal play) among children with ASD. There was no similar association among children without ASD. The role of arousal-related factors in influencing eye contact behaviour in ASD is discussed.

No Evidence of Emotional Dysregulation or Aversion to Mutual Gaze in Preschoolers with Autism Spectrum Disorder: An Eye-Tracking Pupillometry Study

“…These findings have been interpreted in terms of reduced motivational salience of social stimuli in this population (Chevallier et al 2012;Dawson et al 1998;Zeeland et al 2010), such that people with ASD have reduced emotional responses to mutual eye contact, so seek out these experiences less than their TD peers. However, Kaartinen et al (2012) also found hypo-arousal in ASD relative to a comparison group in response to averted and closed eyes, suggesting a general hypo-responsiveness to faces rather than to mutual gaze. Joseph et al (2008) found hyperarousal in ASD relative to a comparison group to mutual and averted gaze, and other studies have found no group differences in physiological arousal to mutual gaze between ASD and non-ASD comparison groups (Kylliäinen et al 2012;Kylliäinen and Hietanen 2006;Louwerse et al 2013).…”

“…As shown in Table 1, between-group differences show that findings are mixed. Some studies have documented the opposite pattern, finding hypo-arousal to mutual gaze in ASD relative to comparison groups (Kaartinen et al 2012;Stagg et al 2013). These findings have been interpreted in terms of reduced motivational salience of social stimuli in this population (Chevallier et al 2012;Dawson et al 1998;Zeeland et al 2010), such that people with ASD have reduced emotional responses to mutual eye contact, so seek out these experiences less than their TD peers.…”

“…To our knowledge, only four studies to date have examined visual attention to mutual versus averted eye gaze or closed eyes in ASD, and the results are mixed (see Table 1; also included are studies on physiological reactivity). Two studies found that both ASD and comparison groups look for a longer duration to mutual gaze than to averted or closed eyes (Louwerse et al 2013;Vivanti et al 2011); one study found that both groups looked equally to mutual and averted or closed eyes (Kaartinen et al 2012) and one study found that children in the ASD group did not look for a longer duration to mutual versus averted gaze while the control did (Vivanti and Dissanayake 2014). Therefore, although reduced use of mutual gaze in ASD is a consistent clinical finding, only a few eye-tracking studies have examined visual attention to mutual gaze with appropriate experimental control conditions, yielding mixed findings.…”

A review of gene–environment correlations and their implications for autism: A conceptual model.

“…The authors found increased arousal dudng direct gaze, but only in subjects with ASD. Extending this work, Kaartinen et al (2012) found that autonomie arousal to direct gaze, as measured by skin conductance, was positively correlated with social skills impairments, indicadng that individuals who were more aroused by direct eye contact expedenced greater deficits in social functioning. Combined, these studies suggest that an eye contact deficit may be linked to amygdala activation in some individuals with autism, which, as previously discussed, can be influenced by variations in AVPRla and OXTR, among other genes.…”

Using the Circumplex Model of Affect to Study Valence and Arousal Ratings of Emotional Faces by Children and Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders

“…For example, several studies have reported that persons with ASD have difficulties in the processing and labeling of their own emotions, including problems integrating bodily sensations of emotional arousal, recalling previous emotions, and identifying and describing feelings (Capps et al 1992; Hill et al 2004; Losh and Capps 2006; Rieffe et al 2007). Additionally, studies of heart rate variability, pupil size, salivary alpha-amylase, and electrodermal responses have also shown that children with ASD differ from typically developing children in their autonomic responsiveness to viewing human faces as well as when performing other mental tasks (Bal et al 2010; Kaartinen et al 2012; Lioy et al 2011; Martineau et al 2011; Ming et al 2011). …”