关键词: 孤独症谱系障碍, 生命知觉, 运动线索

Abstract: The automatic and effortless percept of shapes as interacting in social relationships is termed animacy perception and the interpretation of entities as intentional agents represents a constitutive component of the ability to spontaneously grasp social meanings.The perception of animacy is a basic and fundamental social ability underlying other social cognition and provides the starting point for more complex social abilities. However, children with autism have profound deficits in social cognitive function and may fail to see social motion in the same way that typically developing children do. In this review, we firstly present three experimental paradigms for the research of animacy perception based on motion cues of the individuals with autism spectrum disorders. Chase detection paradigm is a psychophysical method, which regards chasing as a representation of animacy, and then makes quantitative analysis on the relationship between motor stimulation and perception of animacy. Parameterized paradigm of motion characteristics explores the motion characteristics related to perception of animacy and adjusts animacy perception of individuals with ASD in a parameterized way by tightly controlling the motion parameters of animated displays and requiring participants to evaluate each displays’ animacy. The Causal perception paradigm mainly explores the animacy perception of individuals with ASD by using the stimulus that triggers perception of social causal . There are three abnormalities in the animacy perception based on motion cues of the individuals with ASD. First is the insufficiency of motor information integration, which makes it difficult for ASD to process multiple motion cues at the same time. This results in the individuals with ASD’s performing differently on chase detection tests. The second is the deficiency of social causality perception. When an individual attributes the movement of an object to internal factors such as its inner strength and intentionality, it will produce the perception that the object is alive. Therefore, the individuals of ASD's social causal perception is defective, the normal development of their animacy perception will be greatly affected. The third is the weak neural tracking of high motion complexity. Some studies have shown that objects with high motion complexity are more likely to be alive. Neuroimaging evidence suggests that in HFA relative to controls, there was a diminished neural tracking of increasing animacy ratings in the insula, STG, amygdala, dmPFC, and PCC, indicating less robust and homogenous subjective experiences upon different rating outcomes in HFA. Relevant theories have explained the causes of these abnormalities from the aspects of neuropathology, cognitive processing, and structure and dysfunction of brain. According to the social-orienting model, the lack of attention and understanding of social stimulation in the individuals of ASD will disrupt the development of synaptic connections established in early life, thereby affecting their development of social cognition and social behavior. According to the enactive mind hypothesis, the individuals of ASD can collect motion information that contains animacy, but cannot learn the social significance represented by such information and translate it into social adaptive behaviors. Amygdala theory of autism's main idea is that dysfunction in this particular brain region underlies the main social interaction disorder observed by the individuals of ASD, and has a significant impact on their perception of animacy. In the future, we should enhance the ecological validity of methods, promote developmental and systematic research, and promote the development of relevant intervention programs.

Key words: autism spectrum disorder, animacy perception, motion cues