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Presence of contagious yawning in children with autism spectrum disorder.

ABSTRACT: Most previous studies suggest diminished susceptibility to contagious yawning in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, it could be driven by their atypical attention to the face. To test this hypothesis, children with ASD and typically developing (TD) children were shown yawning and control movies. To ensure participants' attention to the face, an eye tracker controlled the onset of the yawning and control stimuli. Results demonstrated that both TD children and children with ASD yawned more frequently when they watched the yawning stimuli than the control stimuli. It is suggested therefore that the absence of contagious yawning in children with ASD, as reported in previous studies, might relate to their weaker tendency to spontaneously attend to others' faces.

SUBMITTER: Usui S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3736493 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Presence of contagious yawning in children with autism spectrum disorder.

Usui Saori S Senju Atsushi A Kikuchi Yukiko Y Akechi Hironori H Tojo Yoshikuni Y Osanai Hiroo H Hasegawa Toshikazu T

Autism research and treatment 20130722

Most previous studies suggest diminished susceptibility to contagious yawning in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, it could be driven by their atypical attention to the face. To test this hypothesis, children with ASD and typically developing (TD) children were shown yawning and control movies. To ensure participants' attention to the face, an eye tracker controlled the onset of the yawning and control stimuli. Results demonstrated that both TD children and children with ASD ...[more]

PMID: 23970970

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Project description:Research suggests that children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may have reduced empathy, as measured by an impaired contagious yawn response, compared to typically developing (TD) children. Other research has failed to replicate this finding, instead attributing this phenomenon to group differences in attention paid to yawn stimuli. A third possibility is that only a subgroup of children with ASD exhibits the impaired contagious yawn response, and that it can be identified biologically. Here we quantified blood concentrations of the "social" neuropeptide oxytocin (OXT) and evaluated yawning behavior and attention rates during a laboratory task in children with ASD (N?=?34) and TD children (N?=?30) aged 6-12?years. No group difference in contagious yawning behavior was found. However, a blood OXT concentration?×?group (ASD vs. TD) interaction positively predicted contagious yawning behavior (F1,50 ?=?7.4987; P?=?0.0085). Specifically, blood OXT concentration was positively related to contagious yawning behavior in children with ASD, but not in TD children. This finding was not due to delayed perception of yawn stimuli and was observed whether attention paid to test stimuli and clinical symptom severity were included in the analysis or not. These findings suggest that only a biologically defined subset of children with ASD exhibits reduced empathy, as measured by the impaired contagious yawn response, and that prior conflicting reports of this behavioral phenomenon may be attributable, at least in part, to variable mean OXT concentrations across different ASD study cohorts. Autism Res 2019, 12: 1156-1161. © 2019 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. LAY SUMMARY: People with autism may contagiously yawn (i.e., yawn in response to another's yawn) less often than people without autism. We find that people with autism who have lower levels of blood oxytocin (OXT), a hormone involved in social behavior and empathy, show decreased contagious yawning, but those who have higher blood OXT levels do not differ in contagious yawning from controls. This suggests that decreased contagious yawning may only occur in a biologically defined subset of people with autism.

Dataset Information

Presence of contagious yawning in children with autism spectrum disorder.

Publications

Presence of contagious yawning in children with autism spectrum disorder.

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