The preference for surprise in reinforcement learning underlies the differences in developmental changes in risk preference between autistic and neurotypical youth.

Background: Risk preference changes nonlinearly across development. Although extensive developmental research on the neurotypical (NTP) population has shown that risk preference is highest during adolescence, developmental changes in risk preference in autistic (AUT) people, who tend to prefer predictable behaviors, have not been investigated. Here, we aimed to investigate these changes and underlying computational mechanisms.

Longitudinal study of personal space in autism.

The size and regulation of personal space are reportedly atypical in autistic individuals. As personal space regulates social interaction, its developmental change is essential for understanding the nature of social difficulties that autistic individuals face. Adolescence is an important developmental period in which social relationships become complex.

Attention to live eye contact in adolescents with autism spectrum disorder.

A number of studies have reported diminished attention to the eyes in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). These studies predominantly used static images of faces as stimuli. Recent studies, however, have shown enhanced response to eye contact in typically developing (TD) individuals when they observe a person in a live interaction.

Mind perception and moral judgment in autism.

Social difficulties of autistic individuals have been suggested to be caused by mind blindness, the absence of a theory of mind. Numerous studies have investigated theory of mind in autism spectrum disorder or how autistic individuals represent the mental states of others. Here, we have examined, as an alternative, mind perception, namely how individuals perceive the minds of various animate and inanimate entities.

Preferential awareness of protofacial stimuli in autism.

It has been suggested that a subcortically mediated, innate sensitivity to protofacial stimuli leads to specialized face processing and to the development of the social brain. A dysfunction of this face-processing pathway has been associated with atypical social development in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This study investigated whether individuals with ASD exhibit primary sensitivity to monochrome protoface stimuli using continuous flash suppression (CFS).

Absence of preferential unconscious processing of eye contact in adolescents with autism spectrum disorder.

Eye contact plays an essential role in social interaction. Atypical eye contact is a diagnostic and widely reported feature of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Here, we determined whether altered unconscious visual processing of eye contact might underlie atypical eye contact in ASD.

Neural and behavioural responses to face-likeness of objects in adolescents with autism spectrum disorder.

Numerous studies have revealed atypical face processing in autism spectrum disorders (ASD) characterized by social interaction and communication difficulties. This study investigated sensitivity to face-likeness in ASD. In Experiment 1, we found a strong positive correlation between the face-likeness ratings of non-face objects in the ASD (11-19 years old) and the typically developing (TD) group (9-21 years old).

Cultural modulation of face and gaze scanning in young children.

Previous research has demonstrated that the way human adults look at others' faces is modulated by their cultural background, but very little is known about how such a culture-specific pattern of face gaze develops. The current study investigated the role of cultural background on the development of face scanning in young children between the ages of 1 and 7 years, and its modulation by the eye gaze direction of the face. British and Japanese participants' eye movements were recorded while they observed faces moving their eyes towards or away from the participants.

Presence of contagious yawning in children with autism spectrum disorder.

Most previous studies suggest diminished susceptibility to contagious yawning in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, it could be driven by their atypical attention to the face. To test this hypothesis, children with ASD and typically developing (TD) children were shown yawning and control movies.

Cultural background modulates how we look at other persons' gaze.

The current study investigated the role of cultural norms on the development of face-scanning. British and Japanese adults' eye movements were recorded while they observed avatar faces moving their mouth, and then their eyes toward or away from the participants. British participants fixated more on the mouth, which contrasts with Japanese participants fixating mainly on the eyes.

Attention to eye contact in the West and East: autonomic responses and evaluative ratings.

Eye contact has a fundamental role in human social interaction. The special appearance of the human eye (i.e.

Brief report: pointing cues facilitate word learning in children with autism spectrum disorder.

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) reportedly have difficulty associating novel words to an object via the speaker's gaze. It has also been suggested that their performance is related to their gaze duration on the object and improves when the object moves and becomes more salient. However, there is a possibility that they have only relied on the object's movement and have not referenced the speaker's cue (i.

Atypical modulation of face-elicited saccades in autism spectrum disorder in a double-step saccade paradigm.

Atypical development of face processing is a major characteristic in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), which could be due to atypical interactions between subcortical and cortical face processing. The current study investigated the saccade planning towards faces in ASD. Seventeen children with ASD and 17 typically developing (TD) children observed a pair of upright or inverted face configurations flashed sequentially in two different spatial positions.

Atypical disengagement from faces and its modulation by the control of eye fixation in children with autism spectrum disorder.

By using the gap overlap task, we investigated disengagement from faces and objects in children (9-17 years old) with and without autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and its neurophysiological correlates. In typically developing (TD) children, faces elicited larger gap effect, an index of attentional engagement, and larger saccade-related event-related potentials (ERPs), compared to objects. In children with ASD, by contrast, neither gap effect nor ERPs differ between faces and objects.

The effect of gaze direction on the processing of facial expressions in children with autism spectrum disorder: an ERP study.

This study investigated the neural basis of the effect of gaze direction on facial expression processing in children with and without ASD, using event-related potential (ERP). Children with ASD (10-17-year olds) and typically developing (TD) children (9-16-year olds) were asked to determine the emotional expressions (anger or fearful) of a facial stimulus with a direct or averted gaze, and the ERPs were recorded concurrently. In TD children, faces with a congruent expression and gaze direction in approach-avoidance motivation, such as an angry face with a direct gaze (i.

Does gaze direction modulate facial expression processing in children with autism spectrum disorder?

Two experiments investigated whether children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) integrate relevant communicative signals, such as gaze direction, when decoding a facial expression. In Experiment 1, typically developing children (9-14 years old; n = 14) were faster at detecting a facial expression accompanying a gaze direction with a congruent motivational tendency (i.e.

Brief report: does eye contact induce contagious yawning in children with autism spectrum disorder?

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) reportedly fail to show contagious yawning, but the mechanism underlying the lack of contagious yawning is still unclear. The current study examined whether instructed fixation on the eyes modulates contagious yawning in ASD. Thirty-one children with ASD, as well as 31 age-matched typically developing (TD) children, observed video clips of either yawning or control mouth movements.