Preference for Geometric Patterns Early in Life as a Risk Factor for Autism

Abstract

Context Early identification efforts are essential for the early treatment of the symptoms of autism but can only occur if robust risk factors are found. Children with autism often engage in repetitive behaviors and anecdotally prefer to visually examine geometric repetition, such as the moving blade of a fan or the spinning of a car wheel. The extent to which a preference for looking at geometric repetition is an early risk factor for autism has yet to be examined. Objectives To determine if toddlers with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) aged 14 to 42 months prefer to visually examine dynamic geometric images more than social images and to determine if visual fixation patterns can correctly classify a toddler as having an ASD. Design Toddlers were presented with a 1-minute movie depicting moving geometric patterns on 1 side of a video monitor and children in high action, such as dancing or doing yoga, on the other. Using this preferential looking paradigm, total fixation duration and the number of saccades within each movie type were examined using eye tracking technology. Setting University of California, San Diego Autism Center of Excellence. Participants One hundred ten toddlers participated in final analyses (37 with an ASD, 22 with developmental delay, and 51 typical developing toddlers). Main Outcome Measure Total fixation time within the geometric patterns or social images and the number of saccades were compared between diagnostic groups. Results Overall, toddlers with an ASD as young as 14 months spent significantly more time fixating on dynamic geometric images than other diagnostic groups. If a toddler spent more than 69% of his or her time fixating on geometric patterns, then the positive predictive value for accurately classifying that toddler as having an ASD was 100%. Conclusion A preference for geometric patterns early in life may be a novel and easily detectable early signature of infants and toddlers at risk for autism.

Autism, social cognition and superior temporal sulcus

“…Two-yearold toddlers with autism have shown no preference for point-lights biological motion, contrary to typically developing controls [19]. Children with autism showed a preference for geometric patterns of movement rather than for social movement [33]. They will also look less to eyes and face areas and more to body and objects when watching scenes from a movie [34] and, when engaged in semi-naturalistic interaction with a familiar adult, they look significantly less to the face [35].…”

Endocannabinoid Signaling in Autism

“…A set of recent studies raises the possibility that some of these social behavioral deficits in ASD arise due to deficits in reward system functioning [73][74][75]. This hypothesis is supported by studies that report a lack of social motivation in children with autism [76,77]. One rationale for the social motivation-based account of ASD relies on the following premise: if individuals with ASD do not find social stimuli rewarding, and hence do not attend to them as much as neurotypicals, then they are less likely to exhibit empathy toward them.…”

Disinhibited reactive attachment disorder symptoms impair social judgements from faces

“…The other disorder well known to be associated with severe problems in social interaction is Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and there is already a body of research investigating visual processing of faces ASD. Some eyetracking studies in ASD have shown reduced fixations on socially salient aspects of visual scenes (Noris et al, 2012;Pierce et al, 2011;Riby and Hancock, 2009 ;Rice et al, 2012) and there are reports that individuals with ASD look less at facial features (eyes, nose, 5 mouth) than typically developing peers (Chawarska and Shic, 2009;Pelphrey et al, 2002).…”

“…Despite being an on-going debate, the fixation bias in ASD has been replicated in a substantial number of studies (Noris et al, 2012;Nadel et al, 2012;Pierce et al, 2011;Riby and Hancock, 2009 ;Rice et al, 2012;Chawarska and Shic, 2009;Pelphrey et al, 2002 ;Dalton et al, 2005;Jones et al, 2008 ;Kliemann et al, 2010;Klin and Jones, 2008;Klin et al, 2002). Thus, it seems that, in contrast with children with ASD, the difficulties experienced by children with RAD are not linked to sampling of facial features but to a problem with specific processing of the very same visual information that is available to typically developed children.…”