Responding to Other People\u2019s Direct Gaze: Alterations in Gaze Behavior in Infants at Risk for Autism Occur on Very Short Timescales

Pär Nyström,Sven Bölte,Terje Falck-Ytter,Ease Team

doi:10.1007/s10803-017-3253-7

Abstract

Atypical gaze processing has been reported in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Here we explored how infants at risk for ASD respond behaviorally to others’ direct gaze. We assessed 10-month-olds with a sibling with ASD (high risk group; n = 61) and a control group (n = 18) during interaction with an adult. Eye-tracking revealed less looking at the adult in the high risk group during 300–1000 ms after the adult initiated direct gaze: a short alteration that is likely to go unnoticed by the naked eye. Data aggregated over longer segments (the traditional eye-tracking approach) showed no group differences. Although findings are limited by lack of outcome data, they are in line with theories linking atypical eye processing to the emergence of ASD.

Highlights

Altered social interaction and communication are core features of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and already has Leo Kanner noted unusual eye contact and markedly reduced looking at others’ eyes in his seminal report (Kanner 1943)
In the current study we investigated whether infants at risk for ASD show altered behavioral response to another person’s direct gaze during face-to-face social interaction
In the high risk ASD group, we confirmed the ASD diagnosis of the older sibling by reviewing medical records, where at least 70% of all diagnoses were based on the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) (Lord et al 2012) and/ or the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R) (Le Couteur et al 2003)

Summary

Introduction

Altered social interaction and communication are core features of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and already has Leo Kanner noted unusual eye contact and markedly reduced looking at others’ eyes in his seminal report (Kanner 1943). A separate eye tracking control experiment did not show any differences in overall looking times at the eye region between groups Together this suggests that altered processing of direct gaze is more likely to manifest in response to dynamic and more ecologically valid situations than in static presentations, and that analyzing behavior on short timescales could be required to detect subtle behavioral markers in this context. Studies of joint attention have shown a link between gaze behavior and language aquisision (Morales et al 2000; Yoder et al 2006), and documented early alterations in infants at risk for autism (Presmanes et al 2007; Thorup et al 2016) While these studies [and many others, including Mundy and Newell (2007); Mundy and Crowson (1997); Bedford et al (2012), etc.] indicate early atypicalities in socio-communicative skills in ASD, they have not assessed how infants at risk respond to other people’s direct gaze, i.e. a very basic visual signal of communicative intent. The data reported in this study were collected during the EASE 10 month assessment

Participants

Procedure and stimuli

Findings

Discussion