An Eye-Tracking Study on Biological Motion Perception in Children with High-Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder

研究目的：本研究旨在探究高功能自閉症類群障礙（High-Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder, HFASD）兒童基本的運動知覺、動物生物性運動知覺、與人類生物性運動知覺之偏好注視表現與注意力時間歷程，逐步澄清HFASD兒童的生物性運動知覺表現與社會缺損的關聯性。此外，針對自閉症類群障礙的異質性，進一步探討HFASD兒童具智能優異特質者之生物性運動知覺表現。 研究方法：本研究共招募50名7至10歲之HFASD兒童與25名配對生理年齡與智力之TD兒童。本研究採偏好注視作業，以光點呈現三種運動刺激對比的視覺配對情境：（1）基本運動知覺：物體運動配對散亂運動；（2）動物生物性運動知覺：動物運動配對物體運動；（3）人類生物性運動知覺：人類運動配對動物運動。透過眼動追蹤技術測量受試兒童觀看各運動刺激之凝視時間比例與時間歷程之凝視可能性。研究亦涵蓋智力、症狀嚴重度、及適應行為評估。 研究結果：基本運動知覺方面，TD兒童與HFASD 兒童皆對散亂運動具偏好反應。生物性運動知覺方面，整體來說，TD與HFASD兒童皆較偏好動物與人類運動。時間歷程分析顯示，HFASD與TD兒童在相同的時間窗格對動物與人類運動產生偏好興趣。此外，在動物生物性運動知覺中，於時間歷程早期階段，HFASD兒童偏好動物運動之程度低於TD兒童，且偏好動物運動的程度與社會溝通缺損具相關性，於晚期階段，兩組偏好動物運動的程度無顯著差異。在人類生物性運動知覺中，於時間歷程早期階段，HFASD兒童偏好人類運動的程度與TD兒童相當，隨時間遞增，TD兒童維持對人類運動的偏好興趣，然而，HFASD兒童對人類運動的偏好興趣則逐步遞減，至晚期階段，HFASD兒童偏好人類運動的程度顯著低於TD兒童，且與自閉症狀具相關性。考量本研究HFASD兒童樣本之異質性，結果指出智能優異的HFASD兒童對動物生物性運動的偏好程度與TD兒童相當，但在人類生物性運動知覺中，智能優異組與非智能優異組皆隨時間遞增對人類運動的偏好興趣則逐步遞減。 總結：研究結果指出，HFASD兒童對生物性運動的偏好興趣及產生偏好的速度與TD兒童無明顯差異。但HFASD兒童對人類生物性運動偏好興趣的持續度較TD兒童低落，且不因認知優勢具補償作用。整體而言，顯示HFASD兒童的生物性運動知覺表現型態在反映其社會缺損上具有參考價值。本研究也進一步探討臨床應用、研究限制與未來的研究方向。Purposes: This study investigated the preferential attention and attentional processing on the basic motion perception, animal biological motion perception, and human biological motion perception in children with High-Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder (HFASD). It aimed to explore the processing of biological motion perception in children with HFASD and the association to social deficit. Moreover, concerning the heterogeneity within ASD, the study examined the biological motion perception in intellectually gifted children within HFASD. Method: Fifty children aged 7 to 10 years with HFASD and twenty-five children with typically development（TD）matched on age and IQ were recruited. The current study utilized preferential looking paradigm and motion point-light displays, demonstrating three visual comparison: (1) basic motion perception: object motion paired with scrambled motion; (2) animal biological motion perception: animal motion paired with object motion; (3) human biological motion: human motion paired with animal motion. Eye-tracking techniques were applied to measure proportion of dwell time and time course of fixation probability on each motion stimuli. Cognitive function, symptom severity, and adaptive function were also measured. Result: In basic motion perception, children with TD and HFASD preferentially attend toward scrambled motion. In biological motion perception, generally, children with TD and HFASD preferentially attend toward animal motion and human motion. Time-course analysis revealed that children with TD and HFASD attended toward animal motion and human motion at the same time window. Moreover, in animal biological motion perception, children with HFASD showed lower preferential interest in animal motion than children with TD at the early stage of time course, and there were no significnant difference between groups at the late stage of time course. The results also found that the level of preference for animal motion was associated with the severity of social communication. In human biological motion perception, children with TD and HFASD showed similar level of preferential interest in human motion at the early stage of time course; afterthat, children with TD matained preferential interest in human motion across time, but children with HFASD reduced preferential interest in human motion across time. At the late stage of time course, children with HFASD showed significantly lower level preferential interest in human motion than children with TD, and it was associated to symptom severity. Concerning the heterogeneity within the study sample of HFASD, results indicated that there was no difference on the level of preferential interest in animal motion between intellectually gifted HFASD (IG-HFASD) and TD group; however, in human biological motion perception, IG-HFASD and nonIG-HFASD group reduced preferential interest in human motion across time course compared to TD group. Conclusion: Findings suggested that children with HFASD exhibit the equivalent preferential interest and speed of attending to biological motion as did TD children. However, children with HFASD reduced referential interest in human biological motion across time course compared to TD children, and not influenced by the intellectually gifted advantage with compensation. The results implicated that biological motion perception may play an important role to understanding the social deficit in children with ASD. Theoretical and clinical implications of the study were discussed