Social Attention Deficits in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder: Task Dependence of Objects vs. Faces Observation Bias

Abstract

Social attention deficits represent a central impairment of patients suffering from autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but the nature of such deficits remains controversial. We compared visual attention regarding social (faces) vs. non-social stimuli (objects), in an ecological diagnostic context, in 46 children and adolescents divided in two groups: ASD (N = 23) and typical neurodevelopment (TD) (N = 23), matched for chronological age and intellectual performance. Eye-tracking measures of visual scanning, while exploring and describing scenes from three different tasks from the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS), were analyzed: "Description of a Picture," "Cartoons," and "Telling a Story from a Book." Our analyses revealed a three-way interaction between Group, Task, and Social vs. Object Stimuli. We found a striking main effect of group and a task dependence of attentional allocation: while the TD attended first and longer to faces, ASD participants became similar to TD when they were asked to look at pictures while telling a story. Our results suggest that social attention allocation is task dependent, raising the question whether spontaneous attention deficits can be rescued by guiding goal-directed actions.

Keywords: attentional bias; autism diagnostic observation schedule; autism spectrum disorder; eye-tracking; social attention.

Figure 1

Acquisition protocol of the task “Cartoons.” *Between each image is always presented a fixation cross (signaled with an asterisk in the schematic representation of the task) to ensure that the exploration of the image begins at the same point.

Figure 2

Example of the different areas of interest defined.

Figure 3

Interaction effects between group, task, and type of AOI. Mean Entry Time (ms): interaction plot Group × Task × AOI. Mean Entry Time is shown for the AOI group Faces and Objects, plotted by Group (ASD and TD) in the three tasks. Lower numbers indicate the first AOI to have the first gaze fixation.

Figure 4

Interaction effects between group, task, and type of AOI. Mean Normalized Dwell (ms/coverage): interaction plot Group × Task × AOI. Mean Normalized Dwell is shown for the AOI group Faces and Objects, plotted by Group (ASD and TD) in the three tasks. Higher numbers indicate more time spent within the AOI, normalized by the AOI size in comparison to stimulus size, thus more time the subject spent to process the stimuli.

Figure 5

Interaction effects between group, task, and type of AOI. Mean Net Dwell Time (%): interaction plot Group × Task × AOI. Mean Net Dwell Time (%) is shown for the AOI group Faces and Objects, plotted by Group (ASD and TD) in the three tasks. Higher numbers indicate more time spent within the AOI.

Figure 6

Interaction effects between group, task, and type of AOI. Mean Fixation Time (%): interaction plot Group × Task × AOI. Mean Fixation Time is shown for the AOI group Faces and Objects, plotted by Group (ASD and TD) in the three tasks. Higher numbers indicate more time spent within the AOI.