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

Bloch, Carola; Jording, Mathis; Tepest, Ralf; Falter-Wagner, Christine M.; Koeroglu, Sevim; Feikes, Kyra; Vogeley, Kai

doi:10.1007/s00406-023-01750-3

Journal Article

FZJ-2024-01552

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

Bloch, C. (Corresponding author) ; Tepest, R. ; Koeroglu, S. ; Feikes, K. ; Jording, M.FZJ* ; Vogeley, K.FZJ* ; Falter-Wagner, C. M.

2024
Springer Heidelberg

Archiv für Psychiatrie und Nervenkrankheiten 274(7), 1585 - 1599 (2024) [10.1007/s00406-023-01750-3]

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Please use a persistent id in citations: doi:10.1007/s00406-023-01750-3 doi:10.34734/FZJ-2024-01552

Abstract: Temporal coordination of communicative behavior is not only located between but also within interaction partners (e.g., gazeand gestures). This intrapersonal synchrony (IaPS) is assumed to constitute interpersonal alignment. Studies show systematicvariations in IaPS in individuals with autism, which may affect the degree of interpersonal temporal coordination. In thecurrent study, we reversed the approach and mapped the measured nonverbal behavior of interactants with and without ASDfrom a previous study onto virtual characters to study the effects of the differential IaPS on observers (N = 68), both withand without ASD (crossed design). During a communication task with both characters, who indicated targets with gaze anddelayed pointing gestures, we measured response times, gaze behavior, and post hoc impression formation. Results showthat character behavior indicative of ASD resulted in overall enlarged decoding times in observers and this effect was evenpronounced 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 fastresponses, observers with ASD presented with highly variable decoding strategies. In contrast to communication efficiency,impression formation was not influenced by IaPS. The results underline the importance of timing differences in both productionand perception processes during multimodal nonverbal communication in interactants with and without ASD. Inessence, the current findings locate the manifestation of reduced reciprocity in autism not merely in the person, but in theinteractional dynamics of dyads

Classification:

ddc:610

Note: Funding Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL. CB and CFW were supported by the DFG (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) grant numbers FA 876/3–1, FA 876/5–1. KV and MJ were supported by the EC, Horizon 2020 Framework Programme, FET Proactive [Project VIRTUALTIMES; Grant agreement ID: 824128]. KV and SK were supported by the German Ministry of Research and Education [Project SIMSUB; grant ID 01GP2215].

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