The Influence Of Object Affordance On Motor Imagery For Individuals With Autism Spectrum Disorder

Autism Spectrum Disorders(ASD)usually manifests as narrow interests,repetitive stereotypes,and social disorders.Researchers have found that autistic people also have barriers to social cognitive abilities that require action representation,such as imitation.However,the performance of hand movements related to objects is normal,and there are contradictions in the study of the performance of autism.The purpose of this study is to investigate whether objects are conducive to the formation of action representations by ASDs and whether their possible causes are related to objects affordance.This study used the lateral judgment paradigm of motor imagery,added object variables,and combined with eye movement index to explore the influence of objects affordance on ASD participants' motor imagery.The experiment selected 19 people with high-functioning autism and typical developing(TD)individuals and matched them in terms of verbal intelligence,non-verbal intelligence and biological age.Experiment 1 adopts a three-factor mixed experiment design of 2(group:ASD group,TD group)×2(condition: object exists,no object exists)×6(Angle: 0°,60°,120°,180°,240°,300°).The results showed that both groups had smaller responses,higher accuracy and higher biomechanical index in the object exists condition,but ASD group performed worse than TD group.Experiment 2 adopts a three-factor mixed experimental design of 2(group: ASD group,TD group)× 2(condition: correct operational actions,wrong operational actions)× 6(Angle: 0°,60°,120°,180°,240°,300°).The results showed that both groups had lower response times,higher accuracy and higher biomechanical scores when performing correctly,but ASD group performed worse than TD group.Eye movement data showed that the total fixation time and the fixation rate of objects in ASD group were significantly higher than those in TD group.Experiment 3 adopted a three-factor mixed experiment design of 2(group: ASD group,TD group)×2(condition:correct functional action,wrong functional action)×6(Angle: 0°,60°,120°,180°,240°,300°).The results showed that the difference of accuracy between the two groups was not significant,and the response time of the two groups was smaller under the correct functional conditions,and the difference in biomechanical index was not significant.Eyemovement data showed that the total fixation time was shorter under correct functional conditions,and the total fixation time and fixation rate of objects in the autism group were significantly higher than those in TD group.The study draws the following conclusions:(1)ASD have the defects of motor imagery,objects improve the performance by providing the object affordance;(2)The object is beneficial to the understanding of the individual's action intention,and the response time is less when the correct operational action and the correct functional action are performed;(3)The influence of object affordance on the motor imagery of TD individuals was greater than that of autistic individuals.There were differences in the processing strategies between the two groups,with ASD participants being object center and TD participants being hand center.