Adaptation to the Speed of Biological Motion in Autism.
Themis Karaminis, Roberto Arrighi, Georgia Forth and 2 others
PMID 31630295WHAT IT FOUND
Autistic and typically developing children and adolescents showed similar adaptation to the speed of running point-light figures.
The study found no group difference in adaptation, and no differences in attention, eye movements, or speed judgement precision.
Key findings
01Autistic and typically developing participants showed similar adaptation to the speed of running point-light figures.
02Both groups showed a clear adaptation effect, and the group comparison was not significant.
03Adaptation was stronger when participants attended more consistently to the centre of the screen in both groups.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they found
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
The final sample was small: 19 autistic and 19 typical participants. Participants were cognitively able, with IQ scores of at least 70, so findings may not apply to autistic people with intellectual disability or lower cognitive ability. Many tested participants were excluded for poor curve fit, low IQ, poor attention-task performance, or failure to fixate centre, so the study mainly describes people who could complete a demanding dual task. The task measured adaptation to running speed in a laboratory game, not a therapy outcome or everyday social communication situation. The null result does not prove that all biological motion perception or sensory adaptation is typical in autism.
Declared interests
Funding was from the Medical Research Council, the European Research Council, and H2020 European Research Council.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that autistic people perceive all biological motion normally. The null result applies only to adaptation to running speed in a controlled computer task among 19 autistic and 19 typical participants who could sustain attention, and it does not show that social perception or everyday sensory processing is intact.