Eye Contact Triggers Threat Signals In Autistic Children's Brains

[Philosophia]

I thought this would be interesting for those involved in autistic studies.

Eye Contact Triggers Threat Signals In Autistic Children's Brains

MADISON - Brain tests at the University of Wisconsin-Madison suggest that autistic children shy from eye contact because they perceive even the most familiar face as an uncomfortable threat.

The work deepens understanding of an autistic brain's function and may one day inform new treatment approaches and augment how teachers interact with their autistic students.

From here (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/03/050309151153.htm).

If this research is found to be true, then it could help the treatment of autistic children, teenagers, and adults.

[Rudas Starblaze]

it triggers a threat in pretty much everyone i know in RL when i make eye contact.
but i assume thats for different reasons....
:smoke:

[Lunacie]

I can remember nearly everyone in my family being uncomfortable when someone was perceived to be staring at any of us, not quite the level they are attributing to autism I suppose, but similar.

My 6-year old granddaughter doesn't mind looking her family members in the eye, but she doesn't seem to look at others with that same freedom.

I wonder if the testing (brain scans) were done on a variety of autists, from high-functioning to severly affected . . . and how they were able to do such testing on a severely affected autist, sedating the autist would interfere with the testing and influence the results.

[sarabethv]

Interesting. Since direct eye contact is perceived as a threat by many primates, perhaps this will shed some light on the mechanism behind autism.

[SphinYote]

The information isn't especially new. While the exact neural reaction has only recently come under scrutiny, its been known for decades that autistic people and people with aspergers tend to be extremely uncomfortable making eye contact. I think some of the self reporters such as Grandin and Williams actually wrote and described the threat they felt in their books.

The eye contact issue (among others) was one of the factors that made a couple of my professors think I might have Asperger's Syndrome (BTW, for those keeping track here, I never updated my previous posts, but when I asked the psychologist, she said it was possible, but refused to diagnose, and was more interested in trying to convince me to take prozac).

I can say that when people make eyecontact with me, and I'm not expecting it, I will often be reduced to a stuttering mess, face will turn red, heartrate shoots way up, etc. Can vouch for the anxiety reaction.

Knowing that, I have been making more of an attempt to get used to it, making more eyecontact, and when I am expecting it, when I initiate it, I'm usually fine, if a little jumpy. But unexpected eye contact is very problematic.

Edit: What I'd really like to see are more studies on the tone of voice issue, and the use of language in particular in Aspergers. There have been a number of studies of what happens, but I don't recall offhand if there have been any studies of brain centers involved in language processing. I just know that for me that has been even worse than the eyecontact issue, because when speaking to people I do not understand how to make my voice sound happy, even when I am. And because other people don't understand that, it has caused a lot of hard feelings. My voice sounds either monotone, tense and upset, or whiney, no matter how hard I try to convey anything else. Would really LOVE to see some more studies on that...would really love for my voice to be able to match what I actually feel.


Yote

[Lunacie]

The information isn't especially new. While the exact neural reaction has only recently come under scrutiny, its been known for decades that autistic people and people with aspergers tend to be extremely uncomfortable making eye contact. I think some of the self reporters such as Grandin and Williams actually wrote and described the threat they felt in their books.

The eye contact issue (among others) was one of the factors that made a couple of my professors think I might have Asperger's Syndrome (BTW, for those keeping track here, I never updated my previous posts, but when I asked the psychologist, she said it was possible, but refused to diagnose, and was more interested in trying to convince me to take prozac).

I can say that when people make eyecontact with me, and I'm not expecting it, I will often be reduced to a stuttering mess, face will turn red, heartrate shoots way up, etc. Can vouch for the anxiety reaction.

Knowing that, I have been making more of an attempt to get used to it, making more eyecontact, and when I am expecting it, when I initiate it, I'm usually fine, if a little jumpy. But unexpected eye contact is very problematic.

Edit: What I'd really like to see are more studies on the tone of voice issue, and the use of language in particular in Aspergers. There have been a number of studies of what happens, but I don't recall offhand if there have been any studies of brain centers involved in language processing. I just know that for me that has been even worse than the eyecontact issue, because when speaking to people I do not understand how to make my voice sound happy, even when I am. And because other people don't understand that, it has caused a lot of hard feelings. My voice sounds either monotone, tense and upset, or whiney, no matter how hard I try to convey anything else. Would really LOVE to see some more studies on that...would really love for my voice to be able to match what I actually feel.


Yote

I have so many people telling me that ADHD and Autism and Asperger's are so very different from each other, but your post really resonates with me and my experiences. I thought I was teasing a friend last week and apparently she took it as sounding cranky or mean instead.

I remember with my granddaughter before we understood there was a real issue for her, that when we were out doing things if she could walk up to someone and say "hi" she was fine, but if someone approached her she wouldn't look at them or talk to them. I have trouble even starting a conversation or asking someone a question so I thought she was doing better than me.

[SphinYote]

I have so many people telling me that ADHD and Autism and Asperger's are so very different from each other, but your post really resonates with me and my experiences. I thought I was teasing a friend last week and apparently she took it as sounding cranky or mean instead.

I remember with my granddaughter before we understood there was a real issue for her, that when we were out doing things if she could walk up to someone and say "hi" she was fine, but if someone approached her she wouldn't look at them or talk to them. I have trouble even starting a conversation or asking someone a question so I thought she was doing better than me.

YES!!! Exactly!

I know that when I have to ask a question I usually tense up badly and my voice comes out almost as a challenge, and people take it as confrontation.... I suppose they aren't entirely wrong, but the confrontation is with myself, not with them.....

The eye contact thing is interesting too. In more recent years people haven't commented on it much, but in childhood I can't count the numbr of times I was accused of lying, because when asked about something I could not make eye contact. I learned from an early age that the ability to make eye contact is somehow associated with whether or not someone is telling the truth, but the harder I tried, the worse it got. Because when I did manage the eye contact I got so stuttery and embarrassed that they took that as a sign of lying or even deliberately being contrary, as well.

I think even for those who learn to talk at the normal rate, since we can't seem to get the body signals right, we eventually give up except when absolutely necessary because the message gets so garbled without the cues other than words (or the wrong cues that other pople pick up on). I know that after a while in childhood I became mostly mute except when I couldn't hold the emotions in any longer, because no one could relate to my perceptions or means of conveying them....

Eye contact and the body language associated with it is a hge factor. I know that people are more tolerant of me now, but sometimes I still have to give in to the urge to break away from the conversation and literally turn my back on people in order to regain my equilibrium. Especially in a crowded room.

But the odd thing is, a lot of time I react to th fear or anxiety, but don't actually "feel" it at the time. I remember it afterward, but during, it is one of those situations where I guess y mind can't handle all the imput it receives and integrate it fully....The awareness of each separate thing exists, but the awarenesses do not synthesize at the time, it is only afterward that I experience each one and see why I was reactig the way I was.

Thank you, this just helped me bring another observation into focus.

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[Sun Sprite]

I agree. Eye contact for me is disturbing, and I will leave the room.

I am sure I have lost many job opportunities in interviews because I refuse to look the interviewer in the eye. There is no reason for me to feel and see my senses spiral out of control while I am trying todo my best to interview for a job. Also, haveing only 3/4 of one eye, what I would consider eye contact, most people percieve as stareing into space, as only one eye would look at their eye (the other has a bad habit of rolling whatever way it wants to).

Another interesting fact - you know I am lieing if I look you in the eye and tell you something.

As for reading body language, I never have been able to. Any excessive movement has always been percieved by my brain as an attack on me. Now how much of that is the environment I grew up in? How much is the way my brain was originally wired? Very difficult to say.

[SphinYote]

When I am able to make eye contact, a couple of people have made the observation that I'm only looking at one of their eyes, and it makes them uncomfortable....

Its odd, but I can't focus on both at once, even when I'm looking at myself in the mirror. Though in attempting that I did discover I have the ability to cross one eye at a time.....