This preliminary finding jives very well with what I have had reported to me by adults on Spectrum. Eye contact is (IMNSHO) highly over-rated, and more important to the typicals speaking than it is for the communication itself.
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?SID=mail&articleID=000A84C7-F984-1228-B98483414B7F0000&chanID=sa003
Eye Contact Triggers Threat Response in Autistic Children
Children suffering from autism pay very little attention to faces, even those of people close to them. Indeed, this characteristic can become apparent as early as the age of one, and is often used as a developmental sign of the disease. The results of a new study provide additional insight into why autistic children avoid eye contact: they perceive faces as an uncomfortable threat, even if they are familiar.
Kim M. Dalton of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her colleagues studied 27 autistic teenagers who looked at pictures of faces (see image) while a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine scanned their brains. The researchers also tracked the subjects’ eye movements as they studied the images. “This is the very first published study that assesses how individuals with autism look at faces while simultaneously monitoring which of their brain areas are active,” Dalton says. When the image included a direct gaze from a nonthreatening face, brain activity in the amygdala— brain region associated with negative feelings—was much higher for autistic children than it was in members of the control group. “Imagine walking through the world and interpreting every face that looks at you as a threat, even the face of your own mother,” remarks study co-author Richard Davidson, also at UW-Madison.
The results also indicate that a brain area associated with face perception, known as the fusiform region, is fundamentally normal in autistic children; it does exhibit decreased activity, however. Davidson notes that this could result because the over-aroused amygdala makes an autistic child want to look away from faces. In addition, he comments that it was surprising that “when subjects with autism averted their gaze away from the eye region of a face, they showed reduced activity in the amygdala, suggesting that the gaze aversion is serving a functional purpose.” The findings are published today in the journal Nature Neuroscience. —Sarah Graham
Re: Eye Contact Triggers Threat Response in Autistic Children
Aw, shucks. Thanks for the ad.
I don’t know about this in detail. Remember that I’ve never been formally diagnosed with anything except high IQ and (too late) astigmatism and amblyopia, but I sure match the NLD profile almost perfectly, except for being a math major.
Anyway, I know that from childhood through my twenties I found eye contact very uncomfortable. I was just considered very shy. I discovered for myself looking at people’s noses and foreheads, and also un-focusing in front of a group. I used to have zero memory for faces and am still not so hot; recognize people by voice and body language and setting and colouration. My daughter was also considered very shy and was never good at describing people — I have never specifically asked her about eye contact. So if we experience this, other people who share our general profile would be likely to feel the same.
Re: Eye Contact Triggers Threat Response in Autistic Children
Here’s a thought…
If eye contact truly triggers threat response in people on Spectrum, would that mean that forcing them to make eye contact would be a form of harrassment covered by the ADA?
Re: Eye Contact Triggers Threat Response in Autistic Children
Dad — we can hope there is a difference between teaching and harassing. We all have to learn to do things we dislike and sometimes fear at first. There was a thread some time ago about a student having to do an oral presentation to the class, something that causes a lot of fear in many people at first; when you learn to swim you have to learn to hold your breath and put your face under water, again a great cause of fear; speaking foreign languages causes many people great discomfort and if they are allowed to get away with not speaking (as one student I have right now) they go on to fail the class; and so on. Little kids sometimes resist learning very necessary things, and luckily we have not yet reached the stage where people get angry with you for stopping your child running out in the street even if he protests. I would hope that the therapist approaches the eye contact lessons as a form of desensitization, not brutality.
Re: Eye Contact Triggers Threat Response in Autistic Children
Hi,
I am coming from the perspective of a person who has NLD and who also works as a one on one aide with a student with autism. Personally, I find eye contact difficult although I try to do it to the best of my ability.
But obviously, there is a difference between finding it difficult and actually having it be painful as obviously it is to alot of people with autism. That is a key difference in my opinion.
Personally, I practice the philosophy of asking myself if this is worth fighting about. Since I have alot more important issues to worry about with this student, I am not going to ask for eye contact when I need to communicate with this person. By the way, when I do communicate in the style that my student prefers such as giving high fives, I get that eye contact.
In case anyone thinks I don’t have any standards, that is not the case at all. But at the same time, we have got to quit demanding that everyone march to the same drummer come heck or high water.
PT
Re: Eye Contact Triggers Threat Response in Autistic Children
I don’t have any officially diagnosed autistic students, except there is my adult student who is suspected to be somewhere on the spectrum — high-functioning but somehow a bit “off” in many ways — although he is getting a whole lot better now that he has more skills and thus confidence in his abilities.
With all my students, I sit with them side by side at a table, both of us focusing on the work at hand. This reduces the necessity of eye contact for me, something I never thought of until just now but yeah, it is easier, and I don’t demand a lot of eye contact from the students.
In fact when teaching reading I often get the kind of kid who “reads” people socially very well but can’t read a word on paper (as pattim just described with her Read 180 not-so-success); I often have to tell these guys that the word is *not* written on my glasses, thank you.
very interesting
I had read this post several weeks ago and found it very interesting. My 3 yr old has some “oddities” but has not been diagnosed with any spectrum disorder at all. His speech therapist thinks that he is somewhere on the spectrum (PDD-NOS) but we observed something very interesting today during his speech session. We were working with him on feelings and as she was showing him flashcards with pictures of people showing emotions he became obviously uncomfortable. He started fidgeting around, looking away, trying to move on to another activity, trying to look behind the card or around it, etc.
Usually Nate is a very “laid back” child and comfortable with his surroundings, but with these pictures he was very nervous and anxious, at best. He usually has good eye contact with people he is comfortable around, but these pictures really set him off. He was fine with cartoonish pictures of people and emotions, but it seemed he was having the most difficulty with the photos.
I just thought that this was an interesting observation given the article and information and experiences of others. Just adding my two cents worth!
~Hollie
Thanks for posting. It explains a lot of things, esp why eye contact can be difficult but easier with people you are very familar with. I lot of Aspies say thing like it seems like looknig at headlights.
I do think it is overrated. It’s also why I think SI along with any kind of behavioral intervention is important. OTs know that kind of thing, at least intuitively. BTW, did you know eye contact improves after vestibular stimulation? I don’t know fi there is any hard science on that one. I have kind fo taught myself to look around and thru people and do a sort of timing on my eye contact. A lot of Aspy people have tricks on this.
(looking at the nose is one I have heard a lot).
The big thing is that NTs tend to think that you are lying if you don’t look at them. It is highly cultural and blacks, for instance, do not seem to requite the amount of eye contact that whites do. I think I read that Native Americans think that staring starts a lot sooner than whites do. (Good question, how to teach eye contact not staring. )
BTW, I think that NVLD kids have some of the same problems. Not sure if the causes are similar though. Maybe Victoria can shed some light, as she often does.
—des