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Interpersonal Sensory-Motor Synchrony in Adults with and without ASD during an Open-Ended, Joint Motion Game: A Pilot Study
Recent research on Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) suggests that individuals with autism may have a basic deficit in synchronizing with others, and that this difficulty may lead to more complex social and communicative deficits (Marsh et al., 2013). The current project aims to conduct an in-depth investigation of interpersonal sensory-motor synchrony in ASD, using an innovative experimental setup – the mirror game (MG) – that allows high-resolution temporal and spatial motion tracking during an open-ended joint improvisation game adapted from a traditional theater exercise (Noy et al., 2011).
Objectives : To investigate the ability of adults with ASD, as compared with typically developing (TD) adults, to attain interpersonal synchrony in an open ended, joint motion game.
Methods:
Participants: preliminary data from 3 participants with high-functioning ASD was compared with that of 48 TD adults.
MG procedure: two players face each other holding handles which can move along parallel tracks (Fig 1a, b), and are told to “imitate each other, create synchronized and interesting motions, and enjoy playing together”. Participants are instructed to lead the motion (3 min), then follow the experimenter’s motions (3min), and then engage in joint improvisation, with no designated leader (3min). All participants played against the same expert improviser. The motion of the two handles was sampled at 50 HZ (Fig 1c, d).
Data analysis: The degree of motion complexity in participants’ Leader rounds was computed using a wavelet-based complexity measure (WD). Following previous studies of the MG (Noy et al., 2011; Hart et al., 2014), periods of high interpersonal synchrony were defined as periods in which two players exhibited co-confident (CC) motion tracks (Fig1d) without any ‘jitter’ (2-3Hz oscillations around the leader’s trajectory, Fig 1c).
Results:
ASD participants’ motion patterns were significantly less complex and more repetitive than TD participants’ motion patterns (U=0.67, p<.01). Furthermore, while 73% of TD participants attained moments of highly-synchronous, CC motion with the other player when they acted as leaders, none of the ASD participants attained CC when leading. By contrast, during Follower and Joint Improvisation rounds, 2 of the 3 ASD participants attained CC. Clinical observations suggest that the individual who never attained CC in any of the rounds had lower social skills and less motivation than the other two ASD individuals.
Conclusions:
Some individuals with ASD are capable of attaining high interpersonal synchrony when following or co-creating motion with an experienced player. The fact that none of the individuals with ASD attained interpersonal synchrony when leading suggests that they may have difficulty adapting their leading motions to another player. Indeed, when leading, ASD individuals exhibited less complex, repetitive motions. Further data collection and analysis are currently underway to determine whether ASD participants differ from TD participants in their patterns of interpersonal sensory-motor synchrony, and whether these interpersonal motion patterns are associated both with background characteristics such as autism severity, IQ, motor coordination and with more complex social and communication abilities.