双通路理论视角下孤独症谱系障碍者的视线加工障碍

The gaze processing impairment in individuals with autism spectrum disorder:A perspective from the two-process theory

临床行为观察发现,孤独症谱系障碍个体普遍存在不能与他人建立视线接触,不能追随他人视线看向目标物体等视线加工(gaze processing)障碍。然而已有实验研究发现该群体在实验情境中普遍存在视线接触(eye contact)异常,但其视线追随行为(gaze following)则存在正常与异常并存的现象。基于视线加工双通路理论的启示,该障碍可能是由于视线加工皮下通路先天功能异常而皮层通路后天发展异常所致。然而,该理论尚缺乏皮下通路先天功能异常是视线接触障碍潜在神经机制的直接证据,还需进一步考察皮下通路先天功能异常对视线追随障碍的影响作用,以及皮层通路后天发展异常即其补偿机制的神经回路及早期形成过程。

Eye gaze is important social information in social interaction.However,clinical naturalistic observation found that autism spectrum disorder(ASD)individuals are impaired in gaze processing in the first year of life.In particular,individuals with ASD are unable to make eye contact with others and follow others'gaze to look at the target object.Furthermore,experimental studies found that while individuals with ASD presented impaired eye contact,there was contradictory phenomenon of a normal and abnormal coexistence in experimental contexts in gaze following of individuals with ASD.Based on the two-process theory of gaze processing,the group's subcortical pathway is born with functional abnormality,while the cortical pathway develops atypically,which is assumed as the neural mechanism of gaze processing impairment in individuals with ASD.However,the theoretical hypothesis still lacks the direct evidence supporting that the congenital functional abnormality of the subcortical pathway is the neural mechanism of eye contact impairment.Further studies are needed to investigate the effect of the congenital functional abnormality of the subcortical pathway on gaze following impairment and the neural circuit and early formation process of the compensation mechanism of the cortical pathway.