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Description
The high and increasing prevalence of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) presents a growing public health challenge. Research on social behavior identified imitation skills as a fundamental building block of social development. One particularly socially-relevant olfactory cue is maternal body odor, to which the child is exposed the longest. The present study aimed to examine whether maternal body odor facilitated automatic imitation in participants with ASDs, as compared to typically developing (TD) controls. Experimental data was acquired in a sample of 10 children with ASDs and 14 TD participants (7-18 y/o) recruited from a dataset of >120 children and adolescents. Body odor samples were obtained from the mothers of all participants. Participants were exposed to three odors: maternal, stranger’s mother, and a neutral scent, while asked to perform reach and grasp motions, in either imitation (observing a model perform this task) or no imitation conditions. Participant’s movement execution time (MET), which is particularly sensitive to visuomotor priming effects, was used as a primary outcome measure. We hypothesized that the exposure to the maternal odor would result in reduction in movement time in the ASD group during imitation trials. This facilitation effect was also predicted to be related to individual differences in ASD symptoms severity and overall functioning. A three way 3 (Odor: maternal, stranger, control) x 2 (Imitation: model, none) x 2 (Group: ASD, TD) mixed ANOVA, with repeated measures on the Odor and Imitation, revealed significant main effects of Odor and Imitation, as well as significant two-way Odor x Imitation and Odor x Group interactions. The significant Odor x Imitation interaction suggests that, regardless of the group membership, participants’ MET in response to different odors varied across Imitation vs. No Imitation trials. The results of the study did not support our hypothesis. While the facilitation effect of the maternal odor after an action observation has been demonstrated in previous research, the opposite effect was observed in the current study. Moreover, we observed that, the maternal body odor affected all participants similarly, in that the participants’ own maternal odor elicited a greater (slower) imitation response time, in comparison to all other conditions.
