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. 2024 Sep;54(9):3211-3224.
doi: 10.1007/s10803-023-06043-1. Epub 2023 Jul 6.

Gaze Following as an Early Diagnostic Marker of Autism in a New Word Learning Task in Toddlers

Raquel Camero  1 , Carlos Gallego  2 , Verónica Martínez  3
Affiliations

Gaze Following as an Early Diagnostic Marker of Autism in a New Word Learning Task in Toddlers

Raquel Camero et al. J Autism Dev Disord. 2024 Sep.

Abstract

The aim was to test the use of eye-tracking methodology for the early detection of ASD in a task of association between unfamiliar objects and pseudowords. Significant differences were found between ASD (n = 57) and TD (n = 57) Spanish speaking toddlers in the number and time of fixation. The TD children showed more and longer fixations on eyes and mouth while the ASD children attended almost exclusively to objects, making it difficult to integrate lexical and phonological information. Moreover, the TD toddlers looked at the mouth when the pseudoword was produced while the ASD toddlers did not. Gaze fixation on eyes and mouth during word learning recorded by eye-tracking may be used as a biomarker for the early diagnosis of ASD.

Keywords: Autism spectrum disorders; Early diagnosis; Eye-tracking; Gaze following; Learning new words.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors report there are no competing interests to declare.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Sequence of a trial with identification of AOIs
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Mean percentage of fixation time to AOIs in ASD and TD
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Evolution of the number of gaze fixations by age group in the AIOs in ASD and TD children
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Evolution of the number of gaze fixations by age group in the AIOs in ASD and TD children
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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