There is ample evidence that human primates strive for social contact and experience interactions... more There is ample evidence that human primates strive for social contact and experience interactions with conspecifics as intrinsically rewarding. Focusing on gaze behavior as a crucial means of human interaction, this study employed a unique combination of neuroimaging, eye-tracking, and computer-animated virtual agents to assess the neural mechanisms underlying this component of behavior. In the interaction task, participants believed that during each interaction the agent’s gaze behavior could either be controlled by another participant or by a computer program. Their task was to indicate whether they experienced a given interaction as an interaction with another human participant or the computer program based on the agent’s reaction. Unbeknownst to them, the agent was always controlled by a computer to enable a systematic manipulation of gaze reactions by varying the degree to which the agent engaged in joint attention. This allowed creating a tool to distinguish neural activity underlying the subjective experience of being in engaged in social and non-social interaction. In contrast to previous research, this allows measuring neural activity while participants experience active engagement in real-time social interactions. Results demonstrate that gaze-based interactions with a perceived human partner are associated with activity in the ventral striatum, a core component of reward-related neurocircuitry. In contrast, interactions with a computer-driven agent activate attention networks. Comparisons of neural activity during interaction with behaviorally naïve and explicitly cooperative partners demonstrate different temporal dynamics of the reward system and indicate that the mere experience of engagement in social interaction is sufficient to recruit this system.
Despite the fact that nonverbal dyadic social interactions are abundant in the environment, the n... more Despite the fact that nonverbal dyadic social interactions are abundant in the environment, the neural mechanisms underlying their processing are not yet fully understood. Research in the field of social neuroscience has suggested that two neural networks appear to be involved in social understanding: (1) the action observation network (AON) and (2) the social neural network (SNN). The aim of this study was to determine the differential contributions of the AON and the SNN to the processing of nonverbal behavior as observed in dyadic social interactions. To this end, we used short computer animation sequences displaying dyadic social interactions between two virtual characters and systematically manipulated two key features of movement activity, which are known to influence the perception of meaning in nonverbal stimuli: (1) movement fluency and (2) contingency of movement patterns. A group of 21 male participants rated the "naturalness" of the observed scenes on a four-point scale while undergoing fMRI. Behavioral results showed that both fluency and contingency significantly influenced the "naturalness" experience of the presented animations. Neurally, the AON was preferentially engaged when processing contingent movement patterns, but did not discriminate between different degrees of movement fluency. In contrast, regions of the SNN were engaged more strongly when observing dyads with disturbed movement fluency. In conclusion, while the AON is involved in the general processing of contingent social actions, irrespective of their kinematic properties, the SNN is preferentially recruited when atypical kinematic properties prompt inferences about the agents' intentions.
High-functioning autism (HFA) is a neurodevelopmental disorder, which is characterized by life-lo... more High-functioning autism (HFA) is a neurodevelopmental disorder, which is characterized by life-long socio-communicative impairments on the one hand and preserved verbal and general learning and memory abilities on the other. One of the areas where particular difficulties are observable is the understanding of non-verbal communication cues. Thus, investigating the underlying psychological processes and neural mechanisms of non-verbal communication in HFA allows a better understanding of this disorder, and potentially enables the development of more efficient forms of psychotherapy and trainings. However, the research on non-verbal information processing in HFA faces several methodological challenges. The use of virtual characters (VCs) helps to overcome such challenges by enabling an ecologically valid experience of social presence, and by providing an experimental platform that can be systematically and fully controlled. To make this field of research accessible to a broader audience, we elaborate in the first part of the review the validity of using VCs in non-verbal behavior research on HFA, and we review current relevant paradigms and findings from social-cognitive neuroscience. In the second part, we argue for the use of VCs as either agents or avatars in the context of “transformed social interactions.” This allows for the implementation of real-time social interaction in virtual experimental settings, which represents a more sensitive measure of socio-communicative impairments in HFA. Finally, we argue that VCs and environments are a valuable assistive, educational and therapeutic tool for HFA.
In recent years there has been a strong increase in psychiatric diagnoses belonging to the autism... more In recent years there has been a strong increase in psychiatric diagnoses belonging to the autism spectrum in adulthood. For this diagnostic group of patients, often characterised by normal or above-average intelligence, i.e, high-functioning autism or Asperger syndrome, only few adequate psychotherapeutic treatment options exist. In order to develop a disorder-specific psychotherapeutic group training in a demand-oriented manner, we surveyed adults with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) concerning their needs and expectations relating to psychotherapy. A two-step analysis of needs was carried out: First, after a set of open questions written descriptions of 33 individuals with ASD were analysed using the qualitative content analysis according to Mayring. The resulting category system provided the basis for the closed questionnaire EPAS ("Expectations Psychotherapy Autism Spectrum"). In a second step, 64 individuals with ASD were assessed by EPAS to confirm the relevance of the qualitatively derived dimensions. Both the results of the qualitative and the quantitative analysis confirmed the initial hypothesis that adults with ASD expressed problems associated with disorder-specific core symptoms. Moreover, the quantitative analysis demonstrated that in addition to deficits in social competence and identity formation, the lack of stress management skills represents a crucial load factor. Also, the therapist-associated variables were reported to play an important role for the patients. The analysis of needs indicates that psychotherapy for adults with ASD should focus on the training and development of social-communicative skills. Furthermore, dealing with stress in everyday situations and identity formation after diagnosis should also be considered. Psychotherapists can refer to well-established techniques from cognitive behavioural therapy, which are known to be effective in the identified fields and should have sufficient disorder-specific knowledge, not least in order to prevent misunderstandings within the therapeutic working relationship.
The interpretation of interpersonal gaze behavior requires the use of complex cognitive processes... more The interpretation of interpersonal gaze behavior requires the use of complex cognitive processes and guides social interactions. Among a variety of different gaze characteristics, gaze direction and gaze duration modulate crucially the meaning of the "social gaze". Nevertheless, prior neuroimaging studies disregarded the relevance of gaze duration by focusing on gaze direction only. The present functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study focused on the differentiation of these two gaze parameters. Therefore direct gaze displayed by virtual characters was contrasted with averted gaze and, additionally, systematically varied with respect to gaze duration (i.e., 1, 2.5 or 4 s). Consistent with prior findings, behavioral data showed that likeability was higher for direct than for averted gaze and increased linearly with increasing direct gaze duration. On the neural level, distinct brain regions were associated with the processing of gaze direction and gaze duration: (i) the comparison between direct and averted gaze revealed activations in bilateral occipito-temporal regions including the posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS); (ii) whereas increasing duration of direct gaze evoked differential neural responses in the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) including orbitofrontal and paracingulate regions. The results suggest two complementary cognitive processes related to different gaze parameters. On the one hand, the recruitment of multimodal sensory regions in the pSTS indicates detection of gaze direction via complex visual analysis. On the other hand, the involvement of the MPFC associated with outcome monitoring and mentalizing indicates higher-order social cognitive processes related to evaluation of the ongoing communicational input conveyed by direct gaze duration.
High-functioning autism (HFA) is a neurodevelopmental disorder, which is characterized by life-lo... more High-functioning autism (HFA) is a neurodevelopmental disorder, which is characterized by life-long socio-communicative impairments on the one hand and preserved verbal and general learning and memory abilities on the other. One of the areas where particular difficulties are observable is the understanding of non-verbal communication cues. Thus, investigating the underlying psychological processes and neural mechanisms of non-verbal communication in HFA allows a better understanding of this disorder, and potentially enables the development of more efficient forms of psychotherapy and trainings. However, the research on non-verbal information processing in HFA faces several methodological challenges. The use of virtual characters (VCs) helps to overcome such challenges by enabling an ecologically valid experience of social presence, and by providing an experimental platform that can be systematically and fully controlled. To make this field of research accessible to a broader audienc...
When movements indicate meaningful actions, even nonbiological objects induce the impression of &... more When movements indicate meaningful actions, even nonbiological objects induce the impression of "having a mind" or animacy. This basic social ability was investigated in adults with high-functioning autism (HFA, n = 13, and matched controls, n = 13) by systematically varying motion properties of simple geometric shapes. Critically, trial-by-trial variations of (1) motion complexity of stimuli, and of (2) participants' individual animacy ratings were separately correlated with neural activity to dissociate cognitive strategies relying more closely on stimulus analysis vs. subjective experience. Increasing motion complexity did not yield any significant group differences, and in both groups, it correlated with neural activity in regions involved in perceptual and evaluative processing, including the ventral medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), superior temporal gyrus (STG) and posterior cingulate cortex (PCC). In contrast, although there were no significant behavioral differences between the groups, increasing animacy ratings correlated with neural activity in the insula, STG, amygdala, dorsal mPFC and PCC more strongly in controls than in HFA. These results indicate that in HFA the evaluation of stimulus properties cuing for animacy is intact, while increasing subjective ratings do not seem to be robustly related to social processing, including spontaneous mental state inferences and experience of salience.
There is ample evidence that human primates strive for social contact and experience interactions... more There is ample evidence that human primates strive for social contact and experience interactions with conspecifics as intrinsically rewarding. Focusing on gaze behavior as a crucial means of human interaction, this study employed a unique combination of neuroimaging, eye-tracking, and computer-animated virtual agents to assess the neural mechanisms underlying this component of behavior. In the interaction task, participants believed that during each interaction the agent's gaze behavior could either be controlled by another participant or by a computer program. Their task was to indicate whether they experienced a given interaction as an interaction with another human participant or the computer program based on the agent's reaction. Unbeknownst to them, the agent was always controlled by a computer to enable a systematic manipulation of gaze reactions by varying the degree to which the agent engaged in joint attention. This allowed creating a tool to distinguish neural act...
There is ample evidence that human primates strive for social contact and experience interactions... more There is ample evidence that human primates strive for social contact and experience interactions with conspecifics as intrinsically rewarding. Focusing on gaze behavior as a crucial means of human interaction, this study employed a unique combination of neuroimaging, eye-tracking, and computer-animated virtual agents to assess the neural mechanisms underlying this component of behavior. In the interaction task, participants believed that during each interaction the agent’s gaze behavior could either be controlled by another participant or by a computer program. Their task was to indicate whether they experienced a given interaction as an interaction with another human participant or the computer program based on the agent’s reaction. Unbeknownst to them, the agent was always controlled by a computer to enable a systematic manipulation of gaze reactions by varying the degree to which the agent engaged in joint attention. This allowed creating a tool to distinguish neural activity underlying the subjective experience of being in engaged in social and non-social interaction. In contrast to previous research, this allows measuring neural activity while participants experience active engagement in real-time social interactions. Results demonstrate that gaze-based interactions with a perceived human partner are associated with activity in the ventral striatum, a core component of reward-related neurocircuitry. In contrast, interactions with a computer-driven agent activate attention networks. Comparisons of neural activity during interaction with behaviorally naïve and explicitly cooperative partners demonstrate different temporal dynamics of the reward system and indicate that the mere experience of engagement in social interaction is sufficient to recruit this system.
Despite the fact that nonverbal dyadic social interactions are abundant in the environment, the n... more Despite the fact that nonverbal dyadic social interactions are abundant in the environment, the neural mechanisms underlying their processing are not yet fully understood. Research in the field of social neuroscience has suggested that two neural networks appear to be involved in social understanding: (1) the action observation network (AON) and (2) the social neural network (SNN). The aim of this study was to determine the differential contributions of the AON and the SNN to the processing of nonverbal behavior as observed in dyadic social interactions. To this end, we used short computer animation sequences displaying dyadic social interactions between two virtual characters and systematically manipulated two key features of movement activity, which are known to influence the perception of meaning in nonverbal stimuli: (1) movement fluency and (2) contingency of movement patterns. A group of 21 male participants rated the "naturalness" of the observed scenes on a four-point scale while undergoing fMRI. Behavioral results showed that both fluency and contingency significantly influenced the "naturalness" experience of the presented animations. Neurally, the AON was preferentially engaged when processing contingent movement patterns, but did not discriminate between different degrees of movement fluency. In contrast, regions of the SNN were engaged more strongly when observing dyads with disturbed movement fluency. In conclusion, while the AON is involved in the general processing of contingent social actions, irrespective of their kinematic properties, the SNN is preferentially recruited when atypical kinematic properties prompt inferences about the agents' intentions.
High-functioning autism (HFA) is a neurodevelopmental disorder, which is characterized by life-lo... more High-functioning autism (HFA) is a neurodevelopmental disorder, which is characterized by life-long socio-communicative impairments on the one hand and preserved verbal and general learning and memory abilities on the other. One of the areas where particular difficulties are observable is the understanding of non-verbal communication cues. Thus, investigating the underlying psychological processes and neural mechanisms of non-verbal communication in HFA allows a better understanding of this disorder, and potentially enables the development of more efficient forms of psychotherapy and trainings. However, the research on non-verbal information processing in HFA faces several methodological challenges. The use of virtual characters (VCs) helps to overcome such challenges by enabling an ecologically valid experience of social presence, and by providing an experimental platform that can be systematically and fully controlled. To make this field of research accessible to a broader audience, we elaborate in the first part of the review the validity of using VCs in non-verbal behavior research on HFA, and we review current relevant paradigms and findings from social-cognitive neuroscience. In the second part, we argue for the use of VCs as either agents or avatars in the context of “transformed social interactions.” This allows for the implementation of real-time social interaction in virtual experimental settings, which represents a more sensitive measure of socio-communicative impairments in HFA. Finally, we argue that VCs and environments are a valuable assistive, educational and therapeutic tool for HFA.
In recent years there has been a strong increase in psychiatric diagnoses belonging to the autism... more In recent years there has been a strong increase in psychiatric diagnoses belonging to the autism spectrum in adulthood. For this diagnostic group of patients, often characterised by normal or above-average intelligence, i.e, high-functioning autism or Asperger syndrome, only few adequate psychotherapeutic treatment options exist. In order to develop a disorder-specific psychotherapeutic group training in a demand-oriented manner, we surveyed adults with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) concerning their needs and expectations relating to psychotherapy. A two-step analysis of needs was carried out: First, after a set of open questions written descriptions of 33 individuals with ASD were analysed using the qualitative content analysis according to Mayring. The resulting category system provided the basis for the closed questionnaire EPAS ("Expectations Psychotherapy Autism Spectrum"). In a second step, 64 individuals with ASD were assessed by EPAS to confirm the relevance of the qualitatively derived dimensions. Both the results of the qualitative and the quantitative analysis confirmed the initial hypothesis that adults with ASD expressed problems associated with disorder-specific core symptoms. Moreover, the quantitative analysis demonstrated that in addition to deficits in social competence and identity formation, the lack of stress management skills represents a crucial load factor. Also, the therapist-associated variables were reported to play an important role for the patients. The analysis of needs indicates that psychotherapy for adults with ASD should focus on the training and development of social-communicative skills. Furthermore, dealing with stress in everyday situations and identity formation after diagnosis should also be considered. Psychotherapists can refer to well-established techniques from cognitive behavioural therapy, which are known to be effective in the identified fields and should have sufficient disorder-specific knowledge, not least in order to prevent misunderstandings within the therapeutic working relationship.
The interpretation of interpersonal gaze behavior requires the use of complex cognitive processes... more The interpretation of interpersonal gaze behavior requires the use of complex cognitive processes and guides social interactions. Among a variety of different gaze characteristics, gaze direction and gaze duration modulate crucially the meaning of the "social gaze". Nevertheless, prior neuroimaging studies disregarded the relevance of gaze duration by focusing on gaze direction only. The present functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study focused on the differentiation of these two gaze parameters. Therefore direct gaze displayed by virtual characters was contrasted with averted gaze and, additionally, systematically varied with respect to gaze duration (i.e., 1, 2.5 or 4 s). Consistent with prior findings, behavioral data showed that likeability was higher for direct than for averted gaze and increased linearly with increasing direct gaze duration. On the neural level, distinct brain regions were associated with the processing of gaze direction and gaze duration: (i) the comparison between direct and averted gaze revealed activations in bilateral occipito-temporal regions including the posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS); (ii) whereas increasing duration of direct gaze evoked differential neural responses in the medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) including orbitofrontal and paracingulate regions. The results suggest two complementary cognitive processes related to different gaze parameters. On the one hand, the recruitment of multimodal sensory regions in the pSTS indicates detection of gaze direction via complex visual analysis. On the other hand, the involvement of the MPFC associated with outcome monitoring and mentalizing indicates higher-order social cognitive processes related to evaluation of the ongoing communicational input conveyed by direct gaze duration.
High-functioning autism (HFA) is a neurodevelopmental disorder, which is characterized by life-lo... more High-functioning autism (HFA) is a neurodevelopmental disorder, which is characterized by life-long socio-communicative impairments on the one hand and preserved verbal and general learning and memory abilities on the other. One of the areas where particular difficulties are observable is the understanding of non-verbal communication cues. Thus, investigating the underlying psychological processes and neural mechanisms of non-verbal communication in HFA allows a better understanding of this disorder, and potentially enables the development of more efficient forms of psychotherapy and trainings. However, the research on non-verbal information processing in HFA faces several methodological challenges. The use of virtual characters (VCs) helps to overcome such challenges by enabling an ecologically valid experience of social presence, and by providing an experimental platform that can be systematically and fully controlled. To make this field of research accessible to a broader audienc...
When movements indicate meaningful actions, even nonbiological objects induce the impression of &... more When movements indicate meaningful actions, even nonbiological objects induce the impression of "having a mind" or animacy. This basic social ability was investigated in adults with high-functioning autism (HFA, n = 13, and matched controls, n = 13) by systematically varying motion properties of simple geometric shapes. Critically, trial-by-trial variations of (1) motion complexity of stimuli, and of (2) participants' individual animacy ratings were separately correlated with neural activity to dissociate cognitive strategies relying more closely on stimulus analysis vs. subjective experience. Increasing motion complexity did not yield any significant group differences, and in both groups, it correlated with neural activity in regions involved in perceptual and evaluative processing, including the ventral medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), superior temporal gyrus (STG) and posterior cingulate cortex (PCC). In contrast, although there were no significant behavioral differences between the groups, increasing animacy ratings correlated with neural activity in the insula, STG, amygdala, dorsal mPFC and PCC more strongly in controls than in HFA. These results indicate that in HFA the evaluation of stimulus properties cuing for animacy is intact, while increasing subjective ratings do not seem to be robustly related to social processing, including spontaneous mental state inferences and experience of salience.
There is ample evidence that human primates strive for social contact and experience interactions... more There is ample evidence that human primates strive for social contact and experience interactions with conspecifics as intrinsically rewarding. Focusing on gaze behavior as a crucial means of human interaction, this study employed a unique combination of neuroimaging, eye-tracking, and computer-animated virtual agents to assess the neural mechanisms underlying this component of behavior. In the interaction task, participants believed that during each interaction the agent's gaze behavior could either be controlled by another participant or by a computer program. Their task was to indicate whether they experienced a given interaction as an interaction with another human participant or the computer program based on the agent's reaction. Unbeknownst to them, the agent was always controlled by a computer to enable a systematic manipulation of gaze reactions by varying the degree to which the agent engaged in joint attention. This allowed creating a tool to distinguish neural act...
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