Small study indicates visual information processing problems may stop those with autism from interpreting body language.

BBC News (8/4) reported that, according to a study published in Neuropsychologia, “problems processing visual information may stop those with autism [from] interpreting body language, harming their ability to gauge others’ emotions.” For the study, researchers from the UK’s University of Durham examined “13 adults with autism and found the patients had difficulty identifying emotions, such as anger or happiness, when shown short animated video clips.” Next, the participants with autism, “along with 16 adults with no autism diagnosis…were also shown a number of dots on a computer screen and asked which way they were moving.” The investigators found that “the performance of the autism group was significantly below that of the others in both tests, leading” them “to speculate that there may be serious differences between the ability to process visual information.” The authors pointed “to an area of the brain needed for the perception of motion called the superior temporal sulcus,” citing “previous research which has found that this area responds differently in people with autism.”

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