Alexithymia explains atypical spatiotemporal dynamics of eye gaze in autism

Hélio Clemente Cuve; Santiago Castiello; Brook Shiferaw; Eri Ichijo; Caroline Catmur; Geoffrey Bird

doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2021.104710

Alexithymia explains atypical spatiotemporal dynamics of eye gaze in autism

Hélio Clemente Cuve^*, Santiago Castiello, Brook Shiferaw, Eri Ichijo, Caroline Catmur, Geoffrey Bird

^*Corresponding author for this work

Psychology

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Recognition of emotional facial expressions is considered to be atypical in autism. This difficulty is thought to be due to the way that facial expressions are visually explored. Evidence for atypical visual exploration of emotional faces in autism is, however, equivocal. We propose that, where observed, atypical visual exploration of emotional facial expressions is due to alexithymia, a distinct but frequently co-occurring condition. In this eye-tracking study we tested the alexithymia hypothesis using a number of recent methodological advances to study eye gaze during several emotion processing tasks (emotion recognition, intensity judgements, free gaze), in 25 adults with, and 45 without, autism. A multilevel polynomial modelling strategy was used to describe the spatiotemporal dynamics of eye gaze to emotional facial expressions. Converging evidence from traditional and novel analysis methods revealed that atypical gaze to the eyes is best predicted by alexithymia in both autistic and non-autistic individuals. Information theoretic analyses also revealed differential effects of task on gaze patterns as a function of alexithymia, but not autism. These findings highlight factors underlying atypical emotion processing in autistic individuals, with wide-ranging implications for emotion research.

Original language	English
Article number	104710
Number of pages	15
Journal	Cognition
Volume	212
Early online date	13 Apr 2021
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2021.104710
Publication status	Published - Jul 2021

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
GB is supported by the Baily Thomas Charitable Trust .

Funding Information:
This work was partly funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (Grant: ES/R007527/1 ).

Funding Information:
HCC is supported by a Medical Sciences Division Graduate Studentship awarded by the Clarendon Fund and the Kendrew Fund .

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Elsevier B.V.

Keywords

Alexithymia
Autism
Emotion recognition
Eye gaze
Eye-tracking
Spatiotemporal

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Language and Linguistics
Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Developmental and Educational Psychology
Linguistics and Language
Cognitive Neuroscience

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10.1016/j.cognition.2021.104710Licence: None: All rights reserved

Cite this

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title = "Alexithymia explains atypical spatiotemporal dynamics of eye gaze in autism",

abstract = "Recognition of emotional facial expressions is considered to be atypical in autism. This difficulty is thought to be due to the way that facial expressions are visually explored. Evidence for atypical visual exploration of emotional faces in autism is, however, equivocal. We propose that, where observed, atypical visual exploration of emotional facial expressions is due to alexithymia, a distinct but frequently co-occurring condition. In this eye-tracking study we tested the alexithymia hypothesis using a number of recent methodological advances to study eye gaze during several emotion processing tasks (emotion recognition, intensity judgements, free gaze), in 25 adults with, and 45 without, autism. A multilevel polynomial modelling strategy was used to describe the spatiotemporal dynamics of eye gaze to emotional facial expressions. Converging evidence from traditional and novel analysis methods revealed that atypical gaze to the eyes is best predicted by alexithymia in both autistic and non-autistic individuals. Information theoretic analyses also revealed differential effects of task on gaze patterns as a function of alexithymia, but not autism. These findings highlight factors underlying atypical emotion processing in autistic individuals, with wide-ranging implications for emotion research.",

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note = "Funding Information: GB is supported by the Baily Thomas Charitable Trust . Funding Information: This work was partly funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (Grant: ES/R007527/1 ). Funding Information: HCC is supported by a Medical Sciences Division Graduate Studentship awarded by the Clarendon Fund and the Kendrew Fund . Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021 Elsevier B.V.",

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AU - Bird, Geoffrey

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Alexithymia explains atypical spatiotemporal dynamics of eye gaze in autism

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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