Effects Of Facial Cues On Gaze Perception In Subliminal Autistic Individuals

Autistic traits are also known as the broader autistic phenotype,which have similar characteristics as autism spectrum disorder(ASD)in verbal and nonverbal communication disorders,the stereotype of the cognitive style and atypical perceptual processing.Subthreshold individuals with high autistic traits refer to normal people with high autistic traits who have not beaten the diagnostic criteria of autism in the general population.Similar to individuals with ASD,individuals with Subliminal Autistic Traits also face severe social dysfunction.However,previous studies focused on the impairment of face perception in individuals with ASD,ignored the subliminal autistic people with similar social interaction disorders in the general population.Therefore,it is not clear whether the social interaction impairment of subthreshold autistic traits is related to the abnormal perception of facial social cues.In order to investigate the abnormal perception of facial social cues in subliminal autistic subjects,two experiments were designed to investigate the influence of facial cues on the gaze direction judgments of individuals with Subliminal Autistic Traits at the primary and advanced levels of social cognitive processing,and the role of "topdown" processing when perceptual uncertainty increased.In Experiment 1,the effects of facial orientation and perceptual uncertainty on the gaze direction judgment of subthreshold autistic subjects were investigated using a behavioral experiment.Subthreshold individuals with high and low autistic traits were divided by AQ scale(high AQ group: n=22,mean age: 22.86 years;Low AQ group:n=21,mean age: 23 years).A 3(Face Orientation: Left,Direct and Right)×2(Perceptual Uncertainty: High,Low)×2(Group: High AQ group and Low AQ group)three factors mixed design was used,required subjects to make a judgement of the gaze direction on the stimulus face.The behavior results showed that under the condition of high perceptual uncertainty,the accuracy of judging gaze direction in the High AQ group was significantly lower than that in the control group,indicating that the "topdown" processing negatively moderated the effect of face orientation on the gaze direction judgment of the individuals with high autistic traits.In Experiment 2,the effects of facial emotion and perceptual uncertainty on the gaze direction judgment of subthreshold autistic subjects were investigated using a behavioral and Event-related potential(ERP)experiment.Subthreshold individuals with high and low autistic traits were divided by AQ scale(high AQ group: n=21,mean age: 23 years;Low AQ group: n=21,mean age: 23.8 years).A 3(Facial Emotions:Happy,Angry,and Neutral faces)×2(Perceptual Uncertainty: High,Low)×2(Group:High AQ group and Low AQ group)three factors mixed design was used,required subjects to complete a mixed gaze discrimination task.Behavior results found that under the condition of high perception of uncertainty(i.e.,face 1 had noise when face2 had no noise),the response time of High AQ group under the angry faces significantly greater than the happy faces and neutral faces,which indicated that the "top-down" processing damaged the response time but not accuracy of High AQ group when make a judgement of gaze direction on the emotional faces.The ERP results showed that there was a left and right hemispheric difference in the content of P1 in the occipital area between the high and Low AQ groups: the activation degree of right brain region was significantly higher in the Low AQ group than that in the left brain region,but the activation degree of left and right brain region was more average in the High AQ group.In the frontal-parietal junction region of N1,which are related to emotional cognition,and the activation degree of brain region in the High AQ group was lower than that in the control group,and male brain regions activated degree is lower than the female.There was no significant difference in P2 and N170 components between the high and low AQ groups.But happy emotions can induce the biggest P2 positive wave,and noise under the condition of greater than under the condition of no noise induced P2 amplitude.For the N250 component,the N250 negative wave induced by happy,neutral and angry faces in the High AQ group was significantly lower than that in the Low AQ group,regardless of the presence of noise in the eyes of the faces.The above ERP results suggested that people with high subthreshold autistic traits had neurological abnormalities in perceiving emotional face cues,which were mainly characterized by lower activation in the fronto-parietal junction area than those with low subthreshold autistic traits,lower sensitivity to emotional faces,and no right hemisphere processing advantage in the parietal-occipital region.In a word,this study revealed the perceptual abnormalities and neural responses of subliminal autistic individuals to facial social cues at the primary and advanced levels of social cognition.And it contributes to reveal the relationship between social impairment and abnormal perception of facial cues in subliminal autistic individuals.This study is also helpful to reveal the internal mechanism of social dysfunction in autistic individuals,construct a theoretical model of social dysfunction,and provide important practical guidance for the development of future intervention programs.