Reduced engagement of visual attention in children with autism spectrum disorder

Abstract

A common example of social differences in autism spectrum disorder is poor modulation of reciprocal gaze, including reduced duration of eye contact and difficulty detecting the aim of another’s gaze. It remains unclear, however, whether such differences are specific to the social domain, or are instead indicative of broader alterations in processes of visual engagement and disengagement in autism spectrum disorder. To assess whether children with autism spectrum disorder experience altered engagement of visual attention, and whether such processes are specific to social stimuli, we implemented a gap-overlap eye-tracking paradigm consisting of both social and nonsocial images with children with autism spectrum disorder ( n = 35) and typical development ( n = 32). Children with autism spectrum disorder demonstrated a significantly reduced overall gap effect (i.e. difference in saccade latency to peripheral stimuli between overlap and gap trials) compared with the controls. This reduction spanned both social and nonsocial conditions. Our findings suggest that children with autism spectrum disorder experience alterations in general processes of engagement of visual attention, and that these alterations are not specific to the social domain, but do associate with cognitive functioning. Affected processes of visual engagement in autism spectrum disorder may contribute to features like poor reciprocal gaze, but social-specific symptoms of autism spectrum disorder likely originate from other subcortical processes or higher order cognition. Lay abstract Limited eye contact and difficulty tracking where others are looking are common in people with autism spectrum disorder. It is unclear, however, whether these are specifically social differences; it is possible that they are a result of broader alterations in engaging and disengaging visual attention. We used eye-tracking technology with children with autism spectrum disorder ( n = 35) and typical development ( n = 32), showing them both social and nonsocial imaging to test their visual attention. Children with autism spectrum disorder had a significant difference in how long it took them to look from an image in the middle to one on the side, depending on whether the middle image stayed on the screen or flashed off before the one on the side appeared. This difference was present for both social and nonsocial images, and was related to cognitive ability for only the children with autism spectrum disorder. Our findings suggest that children with autism spectrum disorder have differences in general processes of engaging visual attention that are not specifically social in nature, and that these processes may relate to cognitive ability in autism spectrum disorder. Affected processes of visual engagement in autism spectrum disorder may contribute to symptoms like reduced eye contact, but social-specific symptoms of autism spectrum disorder likely do not stem from reduced visual engagement alone.

Blink rate and facial orientation reveal distinctive patterns of attentional engagement in autistic toddlers: a digital phenotyping approach

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Attentional Engagement and Disengagement Differences for Circumscribed Interest Objects in Young Chinese Children with Autism

“…In line with prior research [ 19 , 20 , 21 , 53 ], we found the expected effect that the SRT was significantly longer in the overlap condition compared to the baseline condition across both ASC and TD groups. The presence of the foveal stimulus in the overlap condition requires more effort to voluntarily disengage attention from and move the eyes to the peripheral target.…”

Gaze and social functioning associations in autism spectrum disorder: A systematic review and meta‐analysis

“…Zalla et al (2016) found that saccadic latency, accuracy, velocity, and variability were not associated with the social subscales of the ADI‐R and ADOS across gap, overlap, and step conditions. Finally, McLaughlin et al (2021) did not identify an association between the gap effect (difference in latency between the gap and overlap conditions) and autism symptom severity (ADOS‐2 Total score) or social functioning (ADOS‐2 Social Communication score, SRS‐2 Total score [parent report]) across combinations of social and nonsocial central and peripheral stimuli.…”