Frontiers in Psychology (Jan 2019)

The Impact of Autistic Traits on Self-Recognition of Body Movements

  • Joseph M. Burling,
  • Akila Kadambi,
  • Tabitha Safari,
  • Hongjing Lu,
  • Hongjing Lu

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02687
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9

Abstract

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Despite the sparse visual information and paucity of self-identifying cues provided by point-light stimuli, as well as a dearth of experience in seeing our own-body movements, people can identify themselves solely based on the kinematics of body movements. The present study found converging evidence of this remarkable ability using a broad range of actions with whole-body movements. In addition, we found that individuals with a high degree of autistic traits showed worse performance in identifying own-body movements, particularly for simple actions. A Bayesian analysis showed that action complexity modulates the relationship between autistic traits and self-recognition performance. These findings reveal the impact of autistic traits on the ability to represent and recognize own-body movements.

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