Evidence of a reduced role for circumscribed interests in the social attention patterns of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Abstract

Reduced social attention is characteristic of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). It has been suggested to result from an early onset and excessive influence of circumscribed interests (CIs) on gaze behaviour, compared to typically developing (TYP) individuals. To date, these findings have been mixed. The current eye-tracking study utilised a visual preference paradigm to investigate the influence of CI versus non-CI objects on attention patterns in children with ASD (aged 3–12 years, n = 37) and their age-matched TYP peers (n = 30). Compared to TYP, social and object attention was reduced in the ASD group irrespective of the presence of CIs. Results suggest a reduced role for CIs and extend recent evidence of atypical attention patterns across social and non-social domains in ASD.

Attention toward Social and Non-Social Stimuli in Preschool Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Paired Preference Eye-Tracking Study

“…The pictures represented neutral expressions, according to the opinion of various adult judges, who were consulted informally before the study. We also referred to the previous literature in order to exclude circumscribed interest objects (e.g., transportation vehicles, or mechanical instruments) and include non circumscribed interest objects (like clothing or household items) [12,19,27]. The non-social images represented common everyday objects, toys, and clothing items, (a dish, a cup, a football, a table tennis racket, a wooden cube, a skateboard, a wooden toy car, a toy drum, a shoe and a hut).…”

“…items) [12,19,27]. The non-social images represented common everyday objects, toys, and clothing items, (a dish, a cup, a football, a table tennis racket, a wooden cube, a skateboard, a wooden toy car, a toy drum, a shoe and a hut).…”

“…However, other studies showed different results about the influence of circumscribed interests on the gaze behaviour of children with ASD. Ambarchi and colleagues [27] used a similar experimental paradigm in older children with ASD (3 to 12 years) and age-matched typical controls, with their results showing a reduction in either social and object attention in ASD independent of the presence of circumscribed interests. Another eye-tracking study involving school-age children and adolescents with ASD and TD (aged between 6 and 17 years) found that competing objects related to circumscribed interests influenced attention to faces in the TD group but not in the ASD group.…”

Do focused interests support word learning? A study with autistic and nonautistic children

“…In a gaze‐tracking study, Sasson and Touchstone (2013) reported that autistic preschoolers prioritized attention to images representing strong interests over attention to faces; the nonautistic sample did not show this pattern. Other research has suggested that depictions of strong interests can also distract nonautistic children from social information (Sasson et al, 2011; Ambarchi et al, 2022; we note that previous literature has often referred to these study samples as “typically developing”, although here we are choosing to use the term “nonautistic” in order to avoid ableist language; Bottema‐Beutel et al, 2021). It is noteworthy, though, that these studies have pitted attention to social cues against focused interests, rather than harnessing focused interests to scaffold attention.…”