It is known that individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) show less sensitivity to the gaze of others. What kind of social difficulties they have in daily life due to their poor sensitivity to the gaze of others? In this study, we focused on a feeling of “embarrassment” which individuals experience when viewing their own non-photogenic facial images, and investigated how the gaze of others affects the feeling of embarrassment. Using fMRI, we measured the brain activity when individuals with ASD and healthy controls viewed images of their own faces, in the presence or absence of others. As a result, individuals with ASD showed less impact of observation on embarrassment, relative to healthy controls. In healthy individuals, presence of others increased connectivity between brain regions involved in thinking about others’ mind and brain regions involved in emotional processing, which led to enhanced embarrassment in response to own face images. In contrast, such a series of effects of observation was not found in individuals with ASD. It is likely that individuals with ASD have difficulty integrating information coming from others and information relating to self.

 

URL (abstract):

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1750946716300228Collaborative Researcher

Collaborative Researcher

Tomoyo Morita PhD.

Graduate Scool of Engineering, Osaka University

Funding

Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (20119001, 23119725, 21220005, 25293248, 15H01846), the Takeda Science Foundation, and Strategic Research Program for Brain Sciences by MEXT.