Altered sense of gaze leading in autism

Abstract

BackgroundImpairments in joint attention are considered a hallmark of the Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Yet, the ability of people with ASD to lead the attentional focus of others has been scarcely investigated. MethodTo address this issue, we designed virtual avatars that can follow the gaze of participants with head and eye movements in real time using eye-tracking. During a training phase, participants were alternately exposed to an avatar that followed their gaze and an avatar that did not. In a subsequent test phase, they were facing the two avatars at the same time. ResultsEye-tracking data showed that, unlike typical controls, participants with ASD focused more on the gaze-following avatar. They were also less inclined to report that their gaze had been followed by this avatar. ConclusionsThese results suggest that adults with ASD fail to sense themselves as agents leading the attentional focus of others during joint attention episodes. Practitioners should not expect individuals with ASD to spontaneously understand the contingency between their attentional focus and someone else’s, even if the link is highly ostensible.