Reduced engagement of visual attention in children with autism spectrum disorder

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.

Keywords: autism spectrum disorders; eye-tracking; gap effect; saccade; social; visual attention.

Schematic of sample gap and overlap trials.

Mean overall gap effect in the autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and typically-developing (TD) groups. Error bars represent ± one standard error. Asterisks indicate p<0.05.

Mean gap and overlap saccade latency in the ASD and TD groups. Error bars represent ± one standard error. Asterisks indicate p<0.05.

Mean gap effect by condition in the autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and typically-developing (TD) groups. Condition labels indicate central and peripheral stimulus type, respectively: nonsocial-nonsocial (“N-N”), social-social (“S-S”), social-nonsocial (“S-N”), and nonsocial-social (“N-S”). Repeated measures ANOVA revealed a significant main effect of diagnosis. Error bars represent ± one standard error.

Mean overlap latency, gap latency, and gap effect in the autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and typically-developing (TD) groups. Error bars represent ± one standard error.