Reduced engagement of visual attention in children with autism spectrum disorder

Similar Gap-Overlap Profiles in Children with Fragile X Syndrome and IQ-Matched Autism

PURPOSE

Fragile X syndrome (FXS) is a single-gene disorder characterized by moderate to severe cognitive impairment and a high association with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Atypical visual attention is a feature of FXS, ASD, and ADHD. Thus, studying early attentional patterns in young children with FXS can offer insight into early emerging neurocognitive processes underlying challenges and contribute to our understanding of common and unique features of ASD and ADHD in FXS.

METHODS

The present study examined visual attention indexed by the gap-overlap paradigm in children with FXS (n = 39) compared to children with ASD matched on intellectual ability and age (n = 40) and age-matched neurotypical controls (n = 34). The relationship between gap-overlap performance and intellectual ability, ASD, and ADHD across groups was characterized. Saccadic reaction times (RT) were collected across baseline, gap, and overlap conditions.

RESULTS

Results indicate no group differences in RT for any conditions. However, RT of the ASD and NT groups became slower throughout the experiment whereas RT of the FXS group did not change, suggesting difficulties in habituation for the FXS group. There was no relationship between RT and intellectual ability, ADHD, or ASD symptoms in the FXS and ASD groups. In the NT group, slower RT was related to elevated ADHD symptoms only.

CONCLUSION

Taken together, findings suggest that the social attention differences documented in FXS and ASD may be due to other cognitive factors, such as reward or motivation, rather than oculomotor control of visual attention.

Blink rate and facial orientation reveal distinctive patterns of attentional engagement in autistic toddlers: a digital phenotyping approach

Differences in social attention are well-documented in autistic individuals, representing one of the earliest signs of autism. Spontaneous blink rate has been used to index attentional engagement, with lower blink rates reflecting increased engagement. We evaluated novel methods using computer vision analysis (CVA) for automatically quantifying patterns of attentional engagement in young autistic children, based on facial orientation and blink rate, which were captured via mobile devices. Participants were 474 children (17-36 months old), 43 of whom were diagnosed with autism. Movies containing social or nonsocial content were presented via an iPad app, and simultaneously, the device's camera recorded the children's behavior while they watched the movies. CVA was used to extract the duration of time the child oriented towards the screen and their blink rate as indices of attentional engagement. Overall, autistic children spent less time facing the screen and had a higher mean blink rate compared to neurotypical children. Neurotypical children faced the screen more often and blinked at a lower rate during the social movies compared to the nonsocial movies. In contrast, autistic children faced the screen less often during social movies than during nonsocial movies and showed no differential blink rate to social versus nonsocial movies.

Attentional Engagement and Disengagement Differences for Circumscribed Interest Objects in Young Chinese Children with Autism

The current study aimed to investigate attentional processing differences for circumscribed interest (CI) and non-CI objects in young Chinese children with autism spectrum condition (ASC) and typically developing (TD) controls. In Experiment 1, a visual preference task explored attentional allocation to cartoon CI and non-CI materials between the two groups. We found that ASC children (n = 22, 4.95 ± 0.59 years) exhibited a preference for CI-related objects compared to non-CI objects, and this effect was absent in the TD children (n = 22, 5.14 ± 0.44 years). Experiment 2 utilized the traditional gap-overlap paradigm (GOP) to investigate attentional disengagement from CI or non-CI items in both groups (ASC: n = 20, 5.92 ± 1.13 years; TD: n = 25, 5.77 ± 0.77 years). There were no group or stimulus interactions in this study. Experiment 3 adopted a modified GOP (MGOP) to further explore disengagement in the two groups (ASC: n = 20, 5.54 ± 0.95 years; TD: n = 24, 5.75 ± 0.52 years), and the results suggested that exogenous disengagement performance was preserved in the ASC group, but the children with ASC exhibited increased endogenous attentional disengagement compared to TD peers. Moreover, endogenous disengagement was influenced further in the presence of CI-related objects in the ASC children. The current results have implications for understanding how the nature of engagement and disengagement processes can contribute to differences in the development of core cognitive skills in young children with ASC.

Gaze and social functioning associations in autism spectrum disorder: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterized by significant social functioning impairments, including (but not limited to) emotion recognition, mentalizing, and joint attention. Despite extensive investigation into the correlates of social functioning in ASD, only recently has there been focus on the role of low‐level sensory input, particularly visual processing. Extensive gaze deficits have been described in ASD, from basic saccadic function through to social attention and the processing of complex biological motion. Given that social functioning often relies on accurately processing visual information, inefficient visual processing may contribute to the emergence and sustainment of social functioning difficulties in ASD. To explore the association between measures of gaze and social functioning in ASD, a systematic review and meta‐analysis was conducted. A total of 95 studies were identified from a search of CINAHL Plus, Embase, OVID Medline, and psycINFO databases in July 2021. Findings support associations between increased gaze to the face/head and eye regions with improved social functioning and reduced autism symptom severity. However, gaze allocation to the mouth appears dependent on social and emotional content of scenes and the cognitive profile of participants. This review supports the investigation of gaze variables as potential biomarkers of ASD, although future longitudinal studies are required to investigate the developmental progression of this relationship and to explore the influence of heterogeneity in ASD clinical characteristics.