Biological Motion Perception in Autism

Abstract

Typically developing adults can readily recognize human actions, even when conveyed to them via point-like markers placed on the body of the actor (Johansson, 1973). Previous research has suggested that children affected by autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are not equally sensitive to this type of visual information (Blake et al, 2003), but it remains unknown why ASD would impact the ability to perceive biological motion. We present evidence which looks at how adolescents and adults with autism are affected by specific factors which are important in biological motion perception, such as (eg, inter-agent synchronicity, upright/inverted, etc).