Abstract
Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are associated to social attention (SA) impairments. A gaze bias to non-social objects over faces has been proposed as an early marker of ASD. This bias may be related to the concomitant circumscribed interests (CI), which question the role of competing objects in this atypical visual behavior. The aim of this study was to compare visual attention patterns to social and non-social images in young children with ASD and matched typical controls (N = 36; age range 41-73 months) assessing the role of emotion in facial stimuli and the type of competing object. A paired preference task was designed pairing happy, angry, and neutral faces with two types of objects (related or not related to autism CI). Eye tracking data were collected, and three indexes were considered as dependent variables: prioritization (attentional orientation), preference, and duration (sustained attention). Results showed that both groups had similar visual pattern to faces (prioritization, more attention and longer visits to faces paired with objects non-related to their CI); however, the ASD group attended to faces significantly less than controls. Children with ASD showed an emotional bias (late orientation to angry faces and typical preference for happy faces). Finally, objects related to their CI captured attention in both groups, significantly reducing SA in children with ASD. Atypical SA is present in young children with ASD regardless the competing non-social object. Identifying strengths and difficulties in SA in this population may have substantial repercussion for early diagnosis, intervention, and ultimately prognosis.
Highlights
Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) comprise a set of neurodevelopmental and pervasive conditions in which social-emotional and communication impairments along with restricted and repetitive behaviors are core symptoms [1,2,3,4]
We hypothesized that young children with ASD would show significantly reduced attention to faces compared with objects, which would differentiate them from the typically developing (TD) group (H1)
All participants assessed were included in the statistical analysis as the eye tracker apparatus collected more than 50% of their fixations, all the 38 children were suitable for the analysis
Summary
Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) comprise a set of neurodevelopmental and pervasive conditions in which social-emotional and communication impairments along with restricted and repetitive behaviors are core symptoms [1,2,3,4]. Visual preference in young children with ASD
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