Affective–motivational brain responses to direct gaze in children with autism spectrum disorder

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Kylliäinen, A., Wallace, S., Coutanche, M. N., Leppänen, J., Cusack, J., Bailey, A., & Hietanen, J. K. (2012). Affective–motivational brain responses to direct gaze in children with autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 53(7), 790-797. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7610.2011.02522.x

Journal or book title
Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry
Publisher
Wiley
Volume
53
Issue
7
Pages
790-797
Publication date: 25 Jan 2012 Added to AutiHub: 5 Jul 2026 Type: Article Article language: English
Publisher source (DOI) OpenAlex source

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Authors

Publication authors
7
Publication authors identified as autistic
1 / 7 (14.3%)
  1. Anneli Kylliäinen
  2. Simon Wallace
  3. Marc N. Coutanche
  4. Jukka Leppänen
  1. James Cusack *
  2. Anthony Bailey
  3. Jari K. Hietanen

Abstract

BACKGROUND: It is unclear why children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) tend to be inattentive to, or even avoid eye contact. The goal of this study was to investigate affective-motivational brain responses to direct gaze in children with ASD. To this end, we combined two measurements: skin conductance responses (SCR), a robust arousal measure, and asymmetry in frontal electroencephalography (EEG) activity which is associated with motivational approach and avoidance tendencies. We also explored whether degree of eye openness and face familiarity modulated these responses. METHODS: Skin conductance responses and frontal EEG activity were recorded from 14 children with ASD and 15 typically developing children whilst they looked at familiar and unfamiliar faces with eyes shut, normally open or wide-open. Stimuli were presented in such a way that they appeared to be looming towards the children. RESULTS: In typically developing children, there were no significant differences in SCRs between the different eye conditions, whereas in the ASD group the SCRs were attenuated to faces with closed eyes and increased as a function of the degree of eye openness. In both groups, familiar faces elicited marginally greater SCRs than unfamiliar faces. In typically developing children, normally open eyes elicited greater relative left-sided frontal EEG activity (associated with motivational approach) than shut eyes and wide-open eyes. In the ASD group, there were no significant differences between the gaze conditions in frontal EEG activity. CONCLUSIONS: Collectively, the results replicate previous finding in showing atypical modulation of arousal in response to direct gaze in children with ASD but do not support the assumption that this response is associated with an avoidant motivational tendency. Instead, children with ASD may lack normative approach-related motivational response to eye contact.

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Cited bibliography overview

These indicators describe the bibliography cited by this publication. An author name is counted each time it appears in one cited reference, so the same person can be counted more than once. Names not yet linked to an author already present in AutiHub are treated as unknown, not as non-autistic. Last computed: 2 Oct 2026 01:00.

Cited references
34
With a DOI
27
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
6
1 / 34 (2.9%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
0 / 34 (0.0%)
References with detected author names
34 / 34 (100.0%)
Without detected author names
0
Without a structured title
0
Without a stable identifier
5
References with raw author names still to review
0
References with external metadata lookup issues
0
These indicators apply to cited references displayed on this page, after technical duplicates have been merged. A reference without a DOI can still support author statistics when a title and author names are available.
Author names detected in the cited bibliography
125
From DOI or external metadata
125
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
0
29 / 125 (23.2%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 96 / 125 (76.8%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
1 / 125 (0.8%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 1 / 29 (3.4%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 1 / 114 (0.9%).
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