scholarly journals Measuring social attention and motivation in autism spectrum disorder using eye-tracking: Stimulus type matters

2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
pp. 620-628 ◽  
Author(s):  
Coralie Chevallier ◽  
Julia Parish-Morris ◽  
Alana McVey ◽  
Keiran M. Rump ◽  
Noah J. Sasson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Eye Tracking ◽  
Stimulus Type ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Social Attention ◽  
Spectrum Disorder

Visual social attention in autism spectrum disorder: Insights from eye tracking studies

2014 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
pp. 279-297 ◽  
Author(s):  
Quentin Guillon ◽  
Nouchine Hadjikhani ◽  
Sophie Baduel ◽  
Bernadette Rogé
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Eye Tracking ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Social Attention ◽  
Spectrum Disorder

scholarly journals Autistic differences in the temporal dynamics of social attention

Autism ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 136236132199857
Author(s):  
Nicholas Hedger ◽  
Bhismadev Chakrabarti
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Eye Tracking ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Social Attention ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Initial Increase ◽  
Social Stimuli ◽  
Gaze Behaviour ◽  
Spectrum Disorders ◽  
Over Time

Individuals with autism spectrum disorders typically exhibit reduced visual attention towards social stimuli relative to neurotypical individuals. Importantly, however, attention is not a static process, and it remains unclear how such effects may manifest over time. Exploring these momentary changes in gaze behaviour can more clearly illustrate how individuals respond to social stimuli and provide insight into the mechanisms underlying reduced social attention in autism spectrum disorder. Using a simple passive eye-tracking task with competing presentations of social and nonsocial stimuli, we examine the different ways in which attention to social stimuli evolves over time in neurotypical adults and adults with and autism spectrum disorders. Our temporal modelling of gaze behaviour revealed divergent temporal profiles of social attention in neurotypical and observers with autism. Neurotypical data showed an initial increase in social attention, a ‘decay’ and subsequent ‘recovery’ after prolonged viewing. By contrast, in individuals with autism spectrum disorder, social attention decayed over time in a linear fashion without recovery after prolonged viewing. We speculate that the ‘gaze cascade’ effect that maintains selection of social stimuli in neurotypical observers is disrupted in individuals with high autistic traits. Considering these temporal components of gaze behaviour may enhance behavioural phenotypes and theories of social attention in autism spectrum disorder. Lay abstract One behaviour often observed in individuals with autism is that they tend to look less towards social stimuli relative to neurotypical individuals. For instance, many eye-tracking studies have shown that individuals with autism will look less towards people and more towards objects in scenes. However, we currently know very little about how these behaviours change over time. Tracking these moment-to-moment changes in looking behaviour in individuals with autism can more clearly illustrate how they respond to social stimuli. In this study, adults with and without autism were presented with displays of social and non-social stimuli, while looking behaviours were measured by eye-tracking. We found large differences in how the two groups looked towards social stimuli over time. Neurotypical individuals initially showed a high probability of looking towards social stimuli, then a decline in probability, and a subsequent increase in probability after prolonged viewing. By contrast, individuals with autism showed an initial increase in probability, followed by a continuous decline in probability that did not recover. This pattern of results may indicate that individuals with autism exhibit reduced responsivity to the reward value of social stimuli. Moreover, our data suggest that exploring the temporal nature of gaze behaviours can lead to more precise explanatory theories of attention in autism.

Early development of social attention in toddlers at high familial risk for autism spectrum disorder

2022 ◽  
Vol 66 ◽  
pp. 101662
Author(s):  
Yixiao Hu ◽  
Qianhan Xiong ◽  
Qiandong Wang ◽  
Ci Song ◽  
Duo Wang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Early Development ◽  
Familial Risk ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Social Attention ◽  
Spectrum Disorder

scholarly journals Social Attention Deficits in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder: Task Dependence of Objects vs. Faces Observation Bias

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susana Mouga ◽  
João Castelhano ◽  
Cátia Café ◽  
Daniela Sousa ◽  
Frederico Duque ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Social Attention ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Attention Deficits ◽  
Social Stimuli ◽  
Task Dependence ◽  
Observation Bias ◽  
Autism Diagnostic Observation

Social attention deficits represent a central impairment of patients suffering from autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but the nature of such deficits remains controversial. We compared visual attention regarding social (faces) vs. non-social stimuli (objects), in an ecological diagnostic context, in 46 children and adolescents divided in two groups: ASD (N = 23) and typical neurodevelopment (TD) (N = 23), matched for chronological age and intellectual performance. Eye-tracking measures of visual scanning, while exploring and describing scenes from three different tasks from the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS), were analyzed: “Description of a Picture,” “Cartoons,” and “Telling a Story from a Book.” Our analyses revealed a three-way interaction between Group, Task, and Social vs. Object Stimuli. We found a striking main effect of group and a task dependence of attentional allocation: while the TD attended first and longer to faces, ASD participants became similar to TD when they were asked to look at pictures while telling a story. Our results suggest that social attention allocation is task dependent, raising the question whether spontaneous attention deficits can be rescued by guiding goal-directed actions.

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