Vigilance or avoidance: How do autistic traits and social anxiety modulate attention to the eyes?

Abstract

IntroductionSocial anxiety disorder (SAD) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are highly overlapping in symptoms and have a high rate of comorbidity, posing challenges in diagnosis and intervention for both disorders. Both disorders are linked to abnormal attention to the eyes, yet how they interactively modulate the attentional process to the eyes remains unclear.MethodsIn this study, we explored how autistic traits and social anxiety in college students separately and together affected different temporal stages of attention to the eyes. Participants were instructed to view virtual faces for 10 s and make an emotional judgment, while their eye movements were recorded.ResultsWe found that social anxiety and autistic traits affected different temporal stages of eye-looking. Social anxiety only affected the first fixation duration on the eyes, while autistic traits were associated with eye avoidance at several time points in the later stage. More importantly, we found an interactive effect of autistic traits and social anxiety on the initial attention to the eyes: Among people scoring high on autistic traits, social anxiety was related to an early avoidance of the eyes as well as attention maintenance once fixated on the eyes.DiscussionOur study suggests the separate and interactive roles of social anxiety and autistic traits in attention to the eyes. It contributes to a deeper understanding of the mechanisms of social attention in both SAD and ASD and highlights the application of psychiatric diagnoses using eye-tracking techniques.

Correlations Between the Development of Social Anxiety and Individuals With Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Systematic Review

“…Moreover, reduced fixation of the eyes in ASD is a common trait. It is observed that early avoidance of the eyes is associated with social anxiety among students with high ASD [ 24 ]. It suggested the reduced fixation of the eyes and poor fear recognition ability influence social anxiety among individuals with ASD since these factors impact the cues and information processing ability necessary for social interaction.…”

Effect of race on Gaze Cueing in adults with high and low autistic traits

“…The mean AQ score of the sample was 16.2 (M = 16.2; SD = 6.48). In the present study, we considered AQ score levels that deviate from the mean by only one standard deviation as medium-low (-1SD) and medium-high (+ 1SD) levels, while scores that deviate more strongly from the mean (+ 2SD) as high levels (see [41] for a similar procedure). It is to note that the present way to classify the levels of the AQ score matches well the classification proposed by Baron Cohen and colleagues [35].…”