UC Davis

Individuals with autism spectrum development (ASD) often demonstrate atypical perception and production of biological motion (BM), a term for the movement patterns of animate beings. Given the importance of visual perceptual and motor skills for social interaction and communication, a fundamental concern for those with ASD, further investigation into these domains, their potential association and their underlying role in ASD is critical. This project aimed to examine performance in both domains using a common metric, the two-thirds power law (2/3 PL), a law of motion that characterizes many forms of human movement. Using a preferential looking paradigm, this study examined attentional patterns toward motion adhering to this law, as well as more traditional BM stimuli with temporal or spatial manipulations. The study also employed a novel task to assess adherence to the law and other kinematics during drawing movements on an iPad tablet. Measures of cognitive, motor and social functioning were collected to explore whether task-specific performance related to atypical functioning in these areas. While the study did not detect a significant relationship between domains with respect to the law, the tasks did reveal a number of atypicalities in perceptual and motor performance in autism, as well as some associations with broader social functioning. Limitations and future directions of this research are also discussed.