Our aimTo go from investigating simple social stimuli processing, to social interaction processing in ASD.

It takes two to tangoSocial interaction processing in ASD

Two limitations of previous research: 1) Lack of ecological valid stimuli2) No social interaction stimuli

We don’t come across mere body parts in daily life, and an agent is mostly seen in a contextual scene

More than one agent is needed for social interaction

BackgroundPeople with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have difficulties with social interaction. To investigate these difficulties, previous neuroscientific studies mainly used simple stimuli such as a single agent or body parts like eyes, faces or hands, that are isolated from any contextual background information.

Danna OomenPromoter: Prof. Dr. Roeljan Wiersema | Co-promoter: Prof. Dr. Marcel Brass | Guidance committee: Dr. Emiel Cracco, Dr. Roma Siugzdaite

§ Sample: Adults || ASD group vs. neurotypical group

§ Event-related potential (ERP) & steady state visually evoked potential (SSVEP) studies

Our approach

Danna.Oomen@ugent.be

@OomenDanna

Multiple social stimuli instead of oneCrowds of faces vs scrambled faces

Interaction + background informationStatic interaction vs no-interaction images

Social movement instead of static imagesIn sync movements (acting together) vs out of sync

Processing interaction movementFluent vs random movement