Point-light Displays
Contents
Point-light Displays
Basic Characteristics
- Description
Point-light displays are constructed by attaching markers or point-lights to major joints or corners of moving people and objects and then recorded so that only the point-lights are visible in the resultant movies. Because so much form information is removed during the construction of these stimuli, they are commonly used to isolate motion perception processes. One study found deficits in labeling actions in PLDs, which suggests that an emotion-processing deficit may not fully describe the perception of human action in this population; however, those with ASD can detect and identify human motion in PLDs.
- PLDs in ASD populations
One study found deficits in labeling actions in PLDs, which suggests that an emotion-processing deficit may not fully describe the perception of human action in this population; however, those with ASD can detect and identify human motion in PLDs.In a study using scrambled point-light walkers on those with AS and controls, both groups demonstrated ceiling levels of direction discrimination performance; however, fMRI measures indicated significantly less neural activity in the superior temporal region, encompassing both the human MT/V5 area and the STS in those with AS compared to controls. Activity in the superior temporal sulcus is required for the accurate perception of PLDs of human motion; thus, decreased neural activity in this area supports the hypothesis that those with ASD differ from typical observers in their visual analysis of human action. Another study found differences in STS activity between those with and without ASD while viewing scrambled and coherent point-light walkers when fMRI data was analyzed and found that neural activity during the perception of coherent point-light walkers correlated with behavioral measures of each observer’s imitation ability and gross motor skills. These results suggest that observers with ASD and controls employ different neural mechanisms during the visual analysis of human movement.
It has been proposed that visual motion perception deficits might be related to deficits in the linkage between the visual and motor systems. Correlations have been found between visual motion coherence thresholds with RDKs and fine motor control in children with ASD and controls, between visual sensitivity to coherent motion in RDKs and PLDs of human motion, and with neural activity in area STS when viewing PLDs of human motion and with gross motor skills in those with ASD. The findings suggest that differences in motor ability may explain a significant amount of the variability in visual sensitivity to movement among those with ASD.
- References
Related Information
- Cognitive construct associated with this task (vote for your favorite, or nominate a new construct label by editing this page):
- Indicators (dependent variables, conditions, or contrasts; measurement variables used for analysis) associated with this task (vote or nominate by editing this page):
- dependent variables:
- Closely related pages (vote or nominate related pages by editing this page):
- Within Species
- Across Species
- CNP Level
- Primary Species
External Resources
- Links out:
- Google: Balloon Analog Risk Task
- -ucla cognitive atlas- (coming soon!)
- Database links
Task Details
- Task Structure (please given an overview of the task procedures here [i.e., overall design, block, trial, and within-trial event structure and timing])
- procedure
- block: experimental block administered until 30 trials were completed
- trial: 30 completed trials
- procedure
- Stimulus Characteristics
- sensory modality (e.g., visual, auditory, somatosensory, gustatory, olfactory): visual and auditory
- functional modality (e.g., linguistic, spatial, numerical, categorical):
- presentation modality (e.g., human examiner, paper, computer display, headphones, speaker): computer display with speakers
- Response Characteristics
- response required -
- effector modality (e.g., vocal, manual, pedal): manual
- functional modality (e.g., words, drawing, writing, keypress, movement): mouse press
- response options (e.g., yes/no, go/no-go, forced choice, multiple choice [specify n of options], free response)- collect money or pump balloon
- response collection (e.g., examiner notes, keyboard, keypad, mouse, voice key, button press)- mouse
- response required -
- Assessment/Control Characteristics
- timing
- monthly cycle dependent??
- circadian dependent??
- control assessment
- 5 senses??
- timing
