How do adults with autism socially sync up during improvisation?
Adults with autism can achieve highly synchronized movement with a partner during creative play, though their synchronization is briefer and less frequent when trying to follow another's lead.
Source
Patterns of Joint Improvisation in Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder
What they did
Researchers compared 34 adults with high-functioning autism against 35 typically developing adults during a computer-tracked mirror game where they completed three rounds: leading, following, and jointly improvising movement with an expert partner. The researchers analyzed fine-grained hand movements to measure moments of high, jitter-free synchronization known as co-confident motion. They also collected data on general motor abilities, social communication skills, and participants' subjective experiences of the game.
What they found
While adults with autism successfully achieved highly synchronized moments, their overall rate of synchronized motion was significantly lower than typically developing peers, a difference most pronounced during the following phase. Additionally, when they did reach high synchronization, their synchronized movements lasted for shorter bursts across all three rounds of the game. General motor difficulties explained some of this difference, while higher levels of alexithymia—difficulty identifying one's own emotions—specifically predicted lower synchronization rates during the following phase.
The limits
What it doesn't show
The study cannot prove why these synchronization deficits occur, as cognitive and emotional factors like motivation and attention were not directly measured. Because the expert player was not blind to the participants' diagnoses, she moved more slowly when leading the autistic group, meaning the difference in partner behavior may have influenced the synchronization rates. Finally, the findings are limited to high-functioning autistic adults playing with a highly cooperative expert, meaning they may not apply to lower-functioning individuals or interactions with peers in everyday settings.
Key terms
- co-confident motion
- A state of high motor synchronization between two players where movements are smooth and jitter-free, indicating they are acting as a single coupled unit rather than in a reactive leader-follower dynamic.
- mirror game
- An experimental paradigm where two players move handles along parallel tracks to collaboratively lead, follow, and improvise movements together.
- alexithymia
- A subclinical condition characterized by an inability to identify, describe, and understand one's own emotions.
- pseudo-pairs analysis
- A statistical control technique where researchers pair the movement data of unrelated participants to establish the baseline level of synchronization that would occur by pure chance.
- kinematic analysis
- The study of the geometry and parameters of motion, such as velocity and acceleration, without considering the forces that cause the movement.
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Quiz yourself
What open-ended joint improvisation paradigm was used in this study to examine motion synchronization?
Common questions
Why is the 'following' condition specifically harder for autistic participants?
Following requires predicting someone else's movements in real time, which relies on fast visual-motor feedback loops. Autistic individuals often face challenges with rapid motor planning and predicting others' intentions, making it harder to keep up without lagging behind.
Did general motor coordination issues explain all of the differences in synchronization?
No, while poorer motor coordination (measured by the PANESS task) correlated with lower synchronization, significant differences between the autistic and typical groups remained even after mathematically controlling for motor skills.
Did the expert partner play differently with the two groups?
Yes, the expert moved more slowly when leading the autistic participants than when leading the neurotypical participants. This represents a limitation, as the reduced speed might have inadvertently restricted opportunities for high-speed synchronized play.
Did autistic participants' intelligence or IQ affect their mirror game performance?
No, the researchers checked for correlations with both verbal and performance IQ and found that synchronization performance did not vary with intelligence levels in either group.
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