No Influence of Emotional Faces or Autistic Traits on Gaze-Cueing in General Population.

ABSTRACT: The present study addressed the controversial issue of whether autistic traits in the general population are associated with the automatic and fundamental aspects of joint attention through eye gaze. Specifically, we examined whether the degree of autistic traits is associated with the magnitude of reflexive attention orienting in the direction of another's eye gaze embedded in neutral and emotional (angry, fearful, and happy) faces. The cue stimuli changed gaze direction and facial expressions simultaneously. Participants were asked to detect a target that appeared at the left or right of the cue stimuli. The results revealed a robust gaze-cueing effect, such that the reaction time to the target was shorter under the gazed-at-target condition than under the non-gazed-at-target condition.

SUBMITTER: Uono S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9088812 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature