Distinct neural mechanisms of social orienting and mentalizing revealed by independent measures of neural and eye movement typicality

Ramot et al. investigate the relationship between typicality of brain activity with typicality of eye movement patterns in autistic and typically developed individuals. They link the two measures using data derived from movie stimuli independent from social stimuli outside of the scanner. Extensive study of typically developing individuals and those on the autism spectrum has identified a large number of brain regions associated with our ability to navigate the social world. Although it is widely appreciated that this so-called "social brain" is composed of distinct, interacting systems, these component parts have yet to be clearly elucidated. Here we used measures of eye movement and neural typicality-based on the degree to which subjects deviated from the norm-while typically developing (N = 62) and individuals with autism (N = 36) watched a large battery of movies depicting social interactions. Our findings provide clear evidence for distinct, but overlapping, neural systems underpinning two major components of the "social brain," social orienting, and inferring the mental state of others.