Interacting with autistic virtual characters: intrapersonal synchrony of nonverbal behavior affects participants' perception

Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci. 2024 Jan 25. doi: 10.1007/s00406-023-01750-3. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTTemporal coordination of communicative behavior is not only located between but also within interaction partners (e.g., gaze and gestures). This intrapersonal synchrony (IaPS) is assumed to constitute interpersonal alignment. Studies show systematic variations in IaPS in individuals with autism, which may affect the degree of interpersonal temporal coordination. In the current study, we reversed the approach and mapped the measured nonverbal behavior of interactants with and without ASD from a previous study onto virtual characters to study the effects of the differential IaPS on observers (N = 68), both with and without ASD (crossed design). During a communication task with both characters, who indicated targets with gaze and delayed pointing gestures, we measured response times, gaze behavior, and post hoc impression formation. Results show that character behavior indicative of ASD resulted in overall enlarged decoding times in observers and this effect was even pronounced in observers with ASD. A classification of observer's gaze types indicated differentiated decoding strategies. Whereas non-autistic observers presented with a rather consistent eyes-focused strategy associated with efficient and fast responses, observers with ASD presented with highly variable decoding strategies. In contrast to communication efficiency, impression formation was not influenced by...

Source: European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience - January 25, 2024 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Carola Bloch Ralf Tepest Sevim Koeroglu Kyra Feikes Mathis Jording Kai Vogeley Christine M Falter-Wagner Source Type: research