{"title":"Recognizing communicative intentions from single- and dyadic point light displays in autistic adults.","authors":"Małgorzata Krawczyk, Amy Pinkham, Karolina Golec-Staśkiewicz, Joanna Wysocka, Łukasz Okruszek","doi":"10.1080/17470919.2025.2491676","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The present study compares the ability of non-autistic (NA) and autistic adults (ASD) with intellectual functioning in the normal range to process communicative intentions from biological motion (BM) - a capacity often considered as a prerequisite for a higher-order social cognition (SC). Twenty-nine ASD and 29 NA completed two tasks assessing the ability to recognize the communicative cues presented by either one or two point-light agents, as well as one point-light emotion recognition task and additional measures of SC abilities. Autistic participants demonstrated a decreased ability to recognize communicative intentions from BM (<i>p</i> = 0.02 for dyadic and <i><u>p</u></i> = 0.03 for single agent task) despite similar levels of neurocognitive and social cognitive functioning. Additional exploratory analyses revealed an indirect trajectory linking the capacity to recognize communication from BM with autism symptoms through social cognitive capacity. Autistic adults may experience difficulties in processing communicative intentions, even in the absence of detectable higher-order SC problems. A possible mechanism might be the engagement in compensatory strategies that are inadequate for detecting lower-order intuitive social cues. Therefore, including tasks that assess the ability to detect communicative cues from BM may be beneficial for autistic adults with high cognitive abilities, in whom SC difficulties might be overlooked.</p>","PeriodicalId":49511,"journal":{"name":"Social Neuroscience","volume":" ","pages":"1-13"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7000,"publicationDate":"2025-04-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Social Neuroscience","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17470919.2025.2491676","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q4","JCRName":"NEUROSCIENCES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The present study compares the ability of non-autistic (NA) and autistic adults (ASD) with intellectual functioning in the normal range to process communicative intentions from biological motion (BM) - a capacity often considered as a prerequisite for a higher-order social cognition (SC). Twenty-nine ASD and 29 NA completed two tasks assessing the ability to recognize the communicative cues presented by either one or two point-light agents, as well as one point-light emotion recognition task and additional measures of SC abilities. Autistic participants demonstrated a decreased ability to recognize communicative intentions from BM (p = 0.02 for dyadic and p = 0.03 for single agent task) despite similar levels of neurocognitive and social cognitive functioning. Additional exploratory analyses revealed an indirect trajectory linking the capacity to recognize communication from BM with autism symptoms through social cognitive capacity. Autistic adults may experience difficulties in processing communicative intentions, even in the absence of detectable higher-order SC problems. A possible mechanism might be the engagement in compensatory strategies that are inadequate for detecting lower-order intuitive social cues. Therefore, including tasks that assess the ability to detect communicative cues from BM may be beneficial for autistic adults with high cognitive abilities, in whom SC difficulties might be overlooked.
期刊介绍:
Social Neuroscience features original empirical Research Papers as well as targeted Reviews, Commentaries and Fast Track Brief Reports that examine how the brain mediates social behavior, social cognition, social interactions and relationships, group social dynamics, and related topics that deal with social/interpersonal psychology and neurobiology. Multi-paper symposia and special topic issues are organized and presented regularly as well.
The goal of Social Neuroscience is to provide a place to publish empirical articles that intend to further our understanding of the neural mechanisms contributing to the development and maintenance of social behaviors, or to understanding how these mechanisms are disrupted in clinical disorders.