2026-04-03T23:42:16Zhttps://recercat.cat/oai/request
oai:recercat.cat:10230/729412026-04-03T00:44:39Zcom_2072_6col_2072_452952
RECERCAT author Matyjek, Magdalena author Bast, Nico author Soto-Faraco, Salvador, 1970- 2026-04-03T00:44:39Z 2026-04-03T00:44:39Z 2026-03-31T08:11:53Z2026-03-31T08:11:53Z20252026-03-31T08:11:53Z https://hdl.handle.net/10230/72941 Autism is often linked to attenuated social attention, including a lowered looking preference for biological motion in autistic compared to non-autistic children. This looking preference has been suggested as an autism marker in childhood. However, few studies have investigated whether this bias persists into adulthood. Furthermore, the underlying cognitive mechanism of this group difference is largely unknown. Pupillary responses have been established as an index of salience processing and are thus a promising measurement of the cognitive bases of looking preference. The present study examined differences in looking preference and pupillary responses to social versus geometric motion between autistic and non-autistic adults (N=66). In terms of preference, autistic adults demonstrated a reduced spontaneous looking toward social stimuli compared to the non-autistic group. Whereas the former displayed no clear preference for either motion type, the latter showed a strong preference for social motion. In terms of pupillary responses, the autistic group showed faster and larger pupil dilation for social motion compared to the non-autistic group, which indicated heightened cognitive effort and arousal. These results suggest persistent differences in social attention across the developmental lifespan in autism.This study has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement no 945380, Agencia Estatal de Investigación grant PID2019-108531GB-I00 AEI/FEDER, and AGAUR Generalitat de Catalunya grant 2021 SGR 00911. © 2025 The Author(s). Psychophysiology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society for Psychophysiological Research. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Autism Autistic traits Looking preference Motion preference Pupillometry Social attention Preference for social motion in autistic adults info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion