Atypical Visual Orienting to Gaze- and Arrow-Cues in Adults with High Functioning Autism

Abstract

The present study investigates visual orienting to directional cues (arrow or eyes) in adults with high functioning autism (n = 19) and age matched controls (n = 19). A choice reaction time paradigm is used in which eye- or arrow direction correctly (congruent) or incorrectly (incongruent) cues target location. In typically developing participants, the visual orienting reflex is longer for eyes than for arrows. Right side cueing, but not left side cueing, induced a congruence effect for eyes, while this effect was evident for right as well as for left side arrow cues. In participants with autism the overall visual orienting reflex was not different between arrows and eyes and no laterality effect was found for eyes cueing. These findings suggest that, instead of a specific Eye Direction Detector persons with autism might have a general 'Symbol Direction Detector'.

Broader Autism Phenotype in Parents of Autistic Children: Reality or Myth?

“…When control fathers and mothers in the current study were compared with the controls in the study of Vlamings et al (2005) it became clear that they demonstrated a different pattern of reaction times. Control fathers had a symmetrical congruency effect on the eye task and mothers did not show a significant effect of congruency on either side of the eye task.…”

“…It is interesting to note that the pattern of reaction times on the eye task shown by fathers as well as mothers with an autistic child is exactly the opposite of what was shown by the young control adults in the study of Vlamings et al (2005), namely, these controls only showed a significant congruency effect when eyes looked to the right. When control fathers and mothers in the current study were compared with the controls in the study of Vlamings et al (2005) it became clear that they demonstrated a different pattern of reaction times.…”

“…Despite their deviant looking behavior in daily life, autistic children demonstrated to benefit from correct cueing of the target in the same way as control children did. Vlamings, Stauder, van Son, and Mottron (2005) also found that young adults with high-functioning autism, like the control group, showed a congruency effect, that is, they responded significantly faster when cues were directed at the location of the target than when the opposite location was cued. However, unlike the autistic adults, the control adults demonstrated a symmetrical congruency effect in response to the arrow cues, but an asymmetrical congruency effect in response to the eye cues.…”

“…The computer task used in this study is identical to the detection task used by Vlamings et al (2005). The detection task can be subdivided into two different tasks: a task where the cues are eyes (from now on referred to as eye task) and a task where the cues are arrows (from now on referred to as arrow task).…”

Olhar de bebês em desenvolvimento típico: correlações longitudinais encontradas

“…Esta pesquisa não considerou se o "olhar para objeto(s)" (OJ) foi decorrente ou não de situações de atenção compartilhada, nas quais, os bebês dirigem seu olhar ao foco de atenção de outra pessoa (8,10,13,23,28) . Isto constituiria uma dificuldade para bebês até os seis meses (24) , porém, na amostra, pareceu ocorrer algumas vezes, especialmente na quinta filmagem.…”