Dissociable aspects of imitation: A study in autism

Hobson, R. Peter; Hobson, Jessica A.

doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2008.04.007

Cited by 86 publications

(62 citation statements)

References 37 publications

(43 reference statements)

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“…This pattern is perhaps consistent with the often reported finding that individuals with ASD are less able to imitate (Williams et al, 2004;Vanvuchelen et al, 2007;Stieglitz et al, 2008;Dowell et al, 2009) or recognize biological motion (Cattaneo et al, 2007;Cook et al, 2009). Specifically, individuals with ASD show difficulties in imitation of movement kinematics, rather than emulation of a movement goal (Hobson and Hobson, 2008;Gowen, 2012;Wild et al, 2012). If the ability to learn from visual feedback regarding one's own movements is impaired, it could potentially hinder the ability to learn a complex series of movement kinematics performed by others.…”

Section: Sensitivity To Errorsupporting

confidence: 84%

Behavioural and neural basis of anomalous motor learning in children with autism

Marko

Crocetti

Hulst

et al. 2015

Brain

133

119

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Autism spectrum disorder is a developmental disorder characterized by deficits in social and communication skills and repetitive and stereotyped interests and behaviours. Although not part of the diagnostic criteria, individuals with autism experience a host of motor impairments, potentially due to abnormalities in how they learn motor control throughout development. Here, we used behavioural techniques to quantify motor learning in autism spectrum disorder, and structural brain imaging to investigate the neural basis of that learning in the cerebellum. Twenty children with autism spectrum disorder and 20 typically developing control subjects, aged 8-12, made reaching movements while holding the handle of a robotic manipulandum. In random trials the reach was perturbed, resulting in errors that were sensed through vision and proprioception. The brain learned from these errors and altered the motor commands on the subsequent reach. We measured learning from error as a function of the sensory modality of that error, and found that children with autism spectrum disorder outperformed typically developing children when learning from errors that were sensed through proprioception, but underperformed typically developing children when learning from errors that were sensed through vision. Previous work had shown that this learning depends on the integrity of a region in the anterior cerebellum. Here we found that the anterior cerebellum, extending into lobule VI, and parts of lobule VIII were smaller than normal in children with autism spectrum disorder, with a volume that was predicted by the pattern of learning from visual and proprioceptive errors. We suggest that the abnormal patterns of motor learning in children with autism spectrum disorder, showing an increased sensitivity to proprioceptive error and a decreased sensitivity to visual error, may be associated with abnormalities in the cerebellum.

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Section: Sensitivity To Errorsupporting

confidence: 84%

Behavioural and neural basis of anomalous motor learning in children with autism

Marko

Crocetti

Hulst

et al. 2015

Brain

133

119

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Hobson & Hobson (2008) and Hobson & Lee (1999) found that children with ASD are skilled at imitating chains of goal-directed actions, but less likely than controls to imitate exactly how the actions are performed (i.e. the 'style') in spite of intact fine motor planning skills (for related findings, see Stone et al 1997;Carpenter et al 2001;Hamilton et al 2007).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Young children with autism spectrum disorder use predictive eye movements in action observation

Falck‐Ytter

2009

Biol. Lett.

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Does a dysfunction in the mirror neuron system (MNS) underlie the social symptoms defining autism spectrum disorder (ASD)? Research suggests that the MNS matches observed actions to motor plans for similar actions, and that these motor plans include directions for predictive eye movements when observing goaldirected actions. Thus, one important question is whether children with ASD use predictive eye movements in action observation. Young children with ASD as well as typically developing children and adults were shown videos in which an actor performed object-directed actions (human agent condition). Children with ASD were also shown control videos showing objects moving by themselves (self-propelled condition). Gaze was measured using a corneal reflection technique. Children with ASD and typically developing individuals used strikingly similar goal-directed eye movements when observing others' actions in the human agent condition. Gaze was reactive in the self-propelled condition, suggesting that prediction is linked to seeing a hand -object interaction. This study does not support the view that ASD is characterized by a global dysfunction in the MNS.

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“…Tasks were based on methodology developed by Hobson and Hobson (2008) and Meltzoff (1988). Each item led to an unambiguous observable outcome in an event similar to those that children had most likely experienced before in their everyday life.…”

Section: Common Actions On Objects (Instrumental Acts)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Nonverbal imitation skills in children with specific language delay

Dohmen

Chiat

Roy

2013

Research in Developmental Disabilities

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This is the unspecified version of the paper.This version of the publication may differ from the final published version. Permanent repository link AbstractResearch in children with language problems has focussed on verbal deficits, and we have less understanding of children"s deficits with nonverbal sociocognitive skills which have been proposed to be important for language acquisition. This study was designed to investigate elicited nonverbal imitation in children with specific language delay (SLD). It is argued that difficulties in nonverbal imitation, which do not involve the processing of structural aspects of language, may be indicative of sociocognitive deficits. Participants were German-speaking typically developing children (n=60) and children with SLD (n=45) aged 2-3½ years. A novel battery of tasks measured their ability to imitate a range of nonverbal target acts that to a greater or lesser extent involve sociocognitive skills (body movements, instrumental acts on objects, pretend acts). Significant group differences were found for all body movement and pretend act tasks, but not for the instrumental acts tasks. The poorer imitative performance of the SLD sample was not explained by motor or nonverbal cognitive skills. Thus, it appeared that the nature of the task affected children"s imitation performance. It is argued that the ability to establish a sense of connectedness with the demonstrator was at the core of children"s imitation difficulty in the SLD sample.

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Dissociable aspects of imitation: A study in autism

Cited by 86 publications

References 37 publications

Behavioural and neural basis of anomalous motor learning in children with autism

Behavioural and neural basis of anomalous motor learning in children with autism

Young children with autism spectrum disorder use predictive eye movements in action observation

Nonverbal imitation skills in children with specific language delay

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