Perception of pointing from biological motion point-light displays in typically developing children and children with autism spectrum disorder

Journal article

We examined whether the movement involved in a pointing gesture, depicted using point-light displays, is sufficient to cue attention in typically developing children (TD) and children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) (aged 8-11 years). Using a Posner-type paradigm, a centrally located display indicated the location of a forthcoming target on 80 % of trials and the opposite location on 20 % of trials. TD children, but not children with ASD, were faster to identify a validly cued target than an invalidly cued target. A scrambled version of the point-light pointing gesture, retaining individual dot speed and direction of movement but not the configuration, produced no validity effect in either group. A video of a pointing gesture produced validity effects in both groups. © 2012 Springer Science+Business Media New York.

Authors: Swettenham, J; Remington, A; Laing, K; Fletcher, R; Coleman, M

• Journal: Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders
• Volume: 43
• Issue: 6
• Pages: 1437-1446
• Publication date: 2013-06-01
• DOI: 10.1007/s10803-012-1699-1
• EISSN: 1573-3432
• ISSN: 0162-3257
• Language: English
• Keywords: Autism; Biological motion; Pointing; Joint attention; ASD