Pupil contagion variation with gaze, arousal, and autistic traits
(2024) In Scientific Reports 14. p.1-12- Abstract
Pupillary contagion occurs when one's pupil size unconsciously adapts to the pupil size of an observed individual and is presumed to reflect the transfer of arousal. Importantly, when estimating pupil contagion, low level stimuli properties need to be controlled for, to ensure that observations of pupillary changes are due to internal change in arousal rather than the external differences between stimuli. Here, naturalistic images of children's faces depicting either small or large pupils were presented to a group of children and adolescents with a wide range of autistic traits, a third of whom had been diagnosed with autism. We examined the extent to which pupillary contagion reflects autonomic nervous system reaction through pupil... (More)
Pupillary contagion occurs when one's pupil size unconsciously adapts to the pupil size of an observed individual and is presumed to reflect the transfer of arousal. Importantly, when estimating pupil contagion, low level stimuli properties need to be controlled for, to ensure that observations of pupillary changes are due to internal change in arousal rather than the external differences between stimuli. Here, naturalistic images of children's faces depicting either small or large pupils were presented to a group of children and adolescents with a wide range of autistic traits, a third of whom had been diagnosed with autism. We examined the extent to which pupillary contagion reflects autonomic nervous system reaction through pupil size change, heart rate and skin conductance response. Our second aim was to determine the association between arousal reaction to stimuli and degree of autistic traits. Results show that pupil contagion and concomitant heart rate change, but not skin conductance change, was evident when gaze was restricted to the eye region of face stimuli. A positive association was also observed between pupillary contagion and autistic traits when participants' gaze was constrained to the eye region. Findings add to a broader understanding of the mechanisms underlying pupillary contagion and its association with autism.
(Less)
- author
- Galazka, Martyna A ; Thorsson, Max LU ; Lundin Kleberg, Johan ; Hadjikhani, Nouchine and Åsberg Johnels, Jakob
- publishing date
- 2024-08-07
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- keywords
- Humans, Pupil/physiology, Male, Female, Arousal/physiology, Adolescent, Child, Autistic Disorder/physiopathology, Heart Rate/physiology, Fixation, Ocular/physiology, Galvanic Skin Response/physiology, Photic Stimulation, Autonomic Nervous System/physiology
- in
- Scientific Reports
- volume
- 14
- article number
- 18282
- pages
- 1 - 12
- publisher
- Nature Publishing Group
- external identifiers
-
- pmid:39112540
- scopus:85200603961
- ISSN
- 2045-2322
- DOI
- 10.1038/s41598-024-68670-7
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- no
- additional info
- © 2024. The Author(s).
- id
- 8113f071-b99a-46ad-b82c-a4a83d32f673
- date added to LUP
- 2024-11-21 22:12:25
- date last changed
- 2025-07-04 23:39:42
@article{8113f071-b99a-46ad-b82c-a4a83d32f673,
abstract = {{<p>Pupillary contagion occurs when one's pupil size unconsciously adapts to the pupil size of an observed individual and is presumed to reflect the transfer of arousal. Importantly, when estimating pupil contagion, low level stimuli properties need to be controlled for, to ensure that observations of pupillary changes are due to internal change in arousal rather than the external differences between stimuli. Here, naturalistic images of children's faces depicting either small or large pupils were presented to a group of children and adolescents with a wide range of autistic traits, a third of whom had been diagnosed with autism. We examined the extent to which pupillary contagion reflects autonomic nervous system reaction through pupil size change, heart rate and skin conductance response. Our second aim was to determine the association between arousal reaction to stimuli and degree of autistic traits. Results show that pupil contagion and concomitant heart rate change, but not skin conductance change, was evident when gaze was restricted to the eye region of face stimuli. A positive association was also observed between pupillary contagion and autistic traits when participants' gaze was constrained to the eye region. Findings add to a broader understanding of the mechanisms underlying pupillary contagion and its association with autism.</p>}},
author = {{Galazka, Martyna A and Thorsson, Max and Lundin Kleberg, Johan and Hadjikhani, Nouchine and Åsberg Johnels, Jakob}},
issn = {{2045-2322}},
keywords = {{Humans; Pupil/physiology; Male; Female; Arousal/physiology; Adolescent; Child; Autistic Disorder/physiopathology; Heart Rate/physiology; Fixation, Ocular/physiology; Galvanic Skin Response/physiology; Photic Stimulation; Autonomic Nervous System/physiology}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{08}},
pages = {{1--12}},
publisher = {{Nature Publishing Group}},
series = {{Scientific Reports}},
title = {{Pupil contagion variation with gaze, arousal, and autistic traits}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-68670-7}},
doi = {{10.1038/s41598-024-68670-7}},
volume = {{14}},
year = {{2024}},
}