Deconstructing atypical eye gaze perception in autism spectrum disorder

Peter C Pantelis,Daniel P Kennedy

doi:10.1038/s41598-017-14919-3

Peter C Pantelis, Daniel P Kennedy

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-14919-3

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Journal: Scientific Reports	Publication Date: Nov 8, 2017
Citations: 23	License type: open-access

Affiliation: Indiana University Bloomington

Abstract

The ability to discern the target of another person’s gaze is critical for social and linguistic development, but functions atypically in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). A multi-pronged approach allowed us to deconstruct this complex ability, to uncover the fundamental bases of this impairment. We analyzed performance on a novel gaze perception task with classical psychophysical metrics (precision and accuracy), principal component analysis (in the analysis of spatial biases), and Bayesian computational modeling (in the analysis of individual subjects’ use of contextual salience cues). Compared to controls, adults with ASD were less precise and less accurate in their judgments of gaze direction. Further, although nearly all controls exhibited a prototypical pattern of spatial bias in their judgments, this spatial prior was severely disrupted among a large subset of ASD participants. By contrast, Bayesian computational modeling revealed that both groups exploited contextual salience cues in their gaze judgments, and that the average strength of this contextual prior was similar for both groups. This comprehensive study revealed that although most ASD participants performed atypically in at least one aspect of gaze perception, the particular aspects disrupted varied idiosyncratically across individuals. Impairment in gaze perception in ASD likely arises via heterogeneous underlying mechanisms.

Highlights

Impairment in the ability to discern the target of another person’s gaze is one of several documented social difficulties associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD)[1,2,3]
This study systematically deconstructs eye gaze perception into four more fundamental constructs, to ask what specific aspect of this ability lie at the root of of this impairment, and whether the answer to this question is consistent across affected individuals
Most control participants and about half of the ASD participants performed in a cluster of high accuracy, with substantial individual differences in precision

Summary

Introduction

Impairment in the ability to discern the target of another person’s gaze is one of several documented social difficulties associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD)[1,2,3]. Perception of eye gaze is often considered as a singular ability, like many complex social abilities it can be broken down into several dissociable and more fundamental processes[11,12]. This study systematically deconstructs eye gaze perception into four more fundamental constructs (precision, accuracy, spatial bias, and integration with context), to ask what specific aspect (or aspects) of this ability lie at the root of of this impairment, and whether the answer to this question is consistent across affected individuals. Eye gaze perception is partially modulated by relatively low-level perceptual processes[13], and the human visual system typically extracts the direction of another person’s eye fixation with remarkable precision[14]. In the face of these conditions, people rely on spatial biases (or priors) to help infer the mostly likely direction of gaze. With respect to salience in particular, at least one study has found that adults with ASD may be susceptible to letting salience cues override gaze cues when attempting to discern the referent of a novel word[21]

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Conclusion