In the eye of the beholden: tracking developmental psychopathology

Eye-Tracking Methodology to Detect Differences in Attention to Faces Between Developmental Language Disorder and Autism

PURPOSE

Developmental language disorder (DLD) and autism sometimes appear as overlapping conditions in behavioral tests. There is much literature on the visual scanning pattern (VSP) of faces in autistic children, but this is scarce regarding those with DLD. The purpose of this study was to compare the VSP of faces in young children with DLD, those with autism, and typically developing peers, assessing the effect of three variables.

METHOD

Two eye-tracking experiments were designed to assess the effect of the emotion and the poser's gender (Experiment 1) and the poser's age (Experiment 2) on the VSP of participants (Experiment 1: N = 59, age range: 32-74 months; Experiment 2: N = 58, age range: 32-74 months). We operationalized the VSP in terms of attentional orientation, visual preference, and depth of processing of each sort of face. We developed two paired preference tasks in which pairs of images of faces showing different emotions were displayed simultaneously to compete for children's attention.

RESULTS

Data analysis revealed two VSP markers common to both disorders: (a) superficial processing of faces and (b) late orientation to angry and child faces. Moreover, one specific marker for each condition was also found: typical preference for child faces in children with DLD versus diminished preference for them in autistic children.

CONCLUSIONS

Considering the similarities found between children with DLD and those with autism, difficulties of children with DLD in attention to faces have been systematically underestimated. Thus, more effort must be made to identify and respond to the needs of this population. Clinical practice may benefit from the potential of eye-tracking methodology and the analysis of the VSP to assess attention to faces in both conditions. This would also contribute to the improvement of early differential diagnosis in the long run.

Self-reported eye contact sensitivity and face processing in chromosome 22q11.2 deletion syndrome

INTRODUCTION

22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22qDS) has been associated with varying levels of social impairments, and with atypical visual scanning of faces. The present study explored whether self-reported sensitivity to eye contact might be related to these phenomena.

METHOD

Individuals with confirmed 22qDS were interviewed about their experience and possible discomfort with eye contact. In cases where individuals expresesed discomfort, they were subsequently asked about coping mechanisms used to deal with this discomfort. In addition to self-reported eye contact discomfort, gaze to emotional faces was examined using eye tracking.

RESULTS

In the subgroup of individuals who reported discomfort during eye contact, eye tracking results revealed a lower amount of gaze in the eyes of neutral faces, as well as the absence of the typical left visual field (LVF) bias, indicative of alterations in hemispheric lateralization. This subgroup also scored lower on a measure of everyday functioning.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results show that, by simply asking individuals with this social and communicative disorder about eye gaze discomfort, we may better understand the specific challenges that they experience. Moreover, information gained from such first-person reports together with eye-tracking measures further informs about the integrity of their face processing system, as well as about the nature and degree of impairment in this population.

Visual preference for social vs. non-social images in young children with autism spectrum disorders. An eye tracking study

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.

Hidden Aspects of the Research ADOS Are Bound to Affect Autism Science

The research-grade Autism Diagnostic Observational Schedule (ADOS) is a broadly used instrument that informs and steers much of the science of autism. Despite its broad use, little is known about the empirical variability inherently present in the scores of the ADOS scale or their appropriateness to define change and its rate, to repeatedly use this test to characterize neurodevelopmental trajectories. Here we examine the empirical distributions of research-grade ADOS scores from 1324 records in a cross-section of the population comprising participants with autism between five and 65 years of age. We find that these empirical distributions violate the theoretical requirements of normality and homogeneous variance, essential for independence between bias and sensitivity. Further, we assess a subset of 52 typical controls versus those with autism and find a lack of proper elements to characterize neurodevelopmental trajectories in a coping nervous system changing at nonuniform, nonlinear rates. Repeating the assessments over four visits in a subset of the participants with autism for whom verbal criteria retained the same appropriate ADOS modules over the time span of the four visits reveals that switching the clinician changes the cutoff scores and consequently influences the diagnosis, despite maintaining fidelity in the same test's modules, room conditions, and tasks' fluidity per visit. Given the changes in probability distribution shape and dispersion of these ADOS scores, the lack of appropriate metric spaces to define similarity measures to characterize change and the impact that these elements have on sensitivity-bias codependencies and on longitudinal tracking of autism, we invite a discussion on readjusting the use of this test for scientific purposes.

Event-related potential (ERP) correlates of face processing in verbal children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and their first-degree relatives: a family study

Background

Inherited abnormalities of perception, recognition, and attention to faces have been implicated in the etiology of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) including abnormal components of event-related brain potentials (ERP) elicited by faces.

Methods

We examined familial aggregation of face processing ERP abnormalities previously implicated in ASD in 49 verbal individuals with ASD, 36 unaffected siblings (US), 18 unaffected fathers (UF), and 53 unrelated controls (UC). The ASD, US, and UC groups ranged in age from 12 to 21 years, the UF group ranged in age from 30 to 56 years. ERP responses to images of upright and inverted faces and houses were analyzed under disparate EEG reference schemes.

Results

Face-sensitive features of N170 and P1 were readily observed in all groups. Differences between ASD and control groups depended upon the EEG reference scheme. Notably, the superiority of face over object for N170 latency was attenuated in ASD subjects, but not their relatives; this occurred exclusively with the average reference. The difference in N170 amplitude between inverted and upright faces was reduced in both ASD and US groups relative to UC, but this effect was significant only with the vertex reference. Furthermore, similar group differences were observed for both inverted faces and inverted houses, suggesting a lack of face specificity for the attenuation of the N170 inversion effect in ASD.

Conclusion

The present findings refine understanding of face processing ERPs in ASD. These data provide only modest evidence for highly-selective ASD-sensitive ERP features, and underscore the sensitivity of these biomarkers to ERP reference scheme. These schemes have varied across published studies and must be accounted for in future studies of the relationship between these commonly acquired ERP characteristics, genotype, and ASD.

Eye gaze during face processing in children and adolescents with 22q11.2 deletion syndrome

OBJECTIVE

The 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11DS) is a neurogenetic syndrome with high risk for the development of psychiatric disorder. There is interest in identifying reliable markers for measuring and monitoring socio-emotional impairments in 22q11DS during development. The current study investigated eye gaze as a potential marker during a face-processing task in children and young adolescents with 22q11DS.

METHOD

Eye gaze and behavioral correlates were investigated in 26 subjects (aged 8 to 15 years) with 22q11DS during the Jane Task, which targets featural and configural face processing. Individuals with 22q11DS were compared with chronologically age-matched healthy controls and individuals with idiopathic developmental delay (DD).

RESULTS

Few differences in accuracy were observed between patients with 22q11DS and DD controls; however individuals with 22q11DS spent less time on the eyes and more time on the mouths than both comparison groups. IQ predicted time on the eyes in subjects with 22q11DS, and anxiety predicted time on the eyes in DD and 22q11DS subjects.

CONCLUSIONS

These results provide evidence for abnormal exploration of faces in the syndrome and suggest that time spent on the eyes may contribute to face processing difficulties and interact with anxiety levels to exacerbate socio-emotional dysfunction in affected individuals.