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Free keywords:
predictive coding, high-functioning autism, social interaction, intention recognition
Abstract:
This study was conducted to examine interpersonal predictive coding in
individuals with high-functioning autism (HFA). Healthy and HFA
participants observed point-light displays of two agents (A and B)
performing separate actions. In the 'communicative' condition, the
action performed by agent B responded to a communicative gesture
performed by agent A. In the 'individual' condition, agent A's
communicative action was substituted by a non-communicative action.
Using a simultaneous masking-detection task, we demonstrate that
observing agent A's communicative gesture enhanced visual discrimination
of agent B for healthy controls, but not for participants with HFA.
These results were not explained by differences in attentional factors
as measured via eye-tracking, or by differences in the recognition of
the point-light actions employed. Our findings, therefore, suggest that
individuals with HFA are impaired in the use of social information to
predict others' actions and provide behavioural evidence that such
deficits could be closely related to impairments of predictive coding.
