Pupillary Contagion in Autism

• Published in: Psychological science Vol. 30; no. 2; pp. 309 - 315
• Main Authors: Galazka, Martyna A., Åsberg Johnels, Jakob, Zürcher, Nicole R., Hippolyte, Loyse, Lemonnier, Eric, Billstedt, Eva, Gillberg, Christopher, Hadjikhani, Nouchine
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.02.2019; SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Arousal; Attention - physiology; Autism; Autism Spectrum Disorder - physiopathology; Child; Contagion; Emotion recognition; Emotions - physiology; Facial Expression; Facial expressions; Facial Recognition - physiology; Female; Humans; Infants; Involuntary; Male; Psychiatry; Psykiatri; Pupil - physiology; Social Perception; Students; Young Adult; hyperarousal; emotional contagion; autonomic mimicry; autism spectrum disorder; pupil
• ISSN: 0956-7976; 1467-9280; 1467-9280
• DOI: 10.1177/0956797618809382

Pupillary contagion is an involuntary change in the observer’s pupil size in response to the pupil size of another person. This effect, presumed to be an important adaption for individuals living in groups, has been documented in both typical infants and adults. Here, for the first time, we report pupillary contagion in individuals with autism, a disorder of social communication. We found that, compared with a typical group (n = 63), individuals with autism (n = 54) exhibited comparable pupillary contagion when observing pictures of emotional faces, despite less spontaneous attention toward the eye region. Furthermore, the magnitude of the pupillary response in the autism group was negatively correlated with time spent fixating the eye region. The results suggest that even with less looking toward the eyes, individuals with autism respond to the affective and arousal levels transmitted from other individuals. These results are discussed in the context of an overarousal account of socioaffective-processing differences in autism.