Performance in a gaze-cueing task is associated with autistic traits

Uncovering the cognitive mechanisms underlying the gaze cueing effect

The gaze cueing effect is the tendency for people to respond faster to targets appearing at locations gazed at by others, compared with locations gazed away from by others. The effect is robust, widely studied, and is an influential finding within social cognition. Formal evidence accumulation models provide the dominant theoretical account of the cognitive processes underlying speeded decision-making, but they have rarely been applied to social cognition research. In this study, using a combination of individual-level and hierarchical computational modelling techniques, we applied evidence accumulation models to gaze cueing data (three data sets total, N = 171, 139,001 trials) for the first time to assess the relative capacity that an attentional orienting mechanism and information processing mechanisms have for explaining the gaze cueing effect. We found that most participants were best described by the attentional orienting mechanism, such that response times were slower at gazed away from locations because they had to reorient to the target before they could process the cue. However, we found evidence for individual differences, whereby the models suggested that some gaze cueing effects were driven by a short allocation of information processing resources to the gazed at location, allowing for a brief period where orienting and processing could occur in parallel. There was exceptionally little evidence to suggest any sustained reallocation of information processing resources neither at the group nor individual level. We discuss how this individual variability might represent credible individual differences in the cognitive mechanisms that subserve behaviourally observed gaze cueing effects.

Dynamic eye avoidance patterns in the high autistic traits group: An eye-tracking study

Introduction

Reduced fixation to the eye area is the main characteristic of social deficits associated with Autism Spectrum Disorder; a similar pattern may exist in individuals with high autistic traits. However, their scanning patterns to the eye area of emotional faces are still unclear on the time scale.

Methods

In the present study, we recruited 46 participants and divided them into the high autistic traits (HAT) group (23 participants) and the low autistic traits (LAT) group (20 participants) based on their Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ) scores. Moreover, we captured their eye movement patterns when observing different angular emotional faces. We extracted the proportional fixation time to the eye area under different time windows.

Results

The results showed that the fixation time of the HAT group was always significantly smaller than that of the LAT group (p < 0.05), and the difference between the two groups increased in the middle and late stages of face presentation. The results of the linear regression analysis showed that the proportional fixation time was negatively correlated with AQ scores (p < 0.05), indicating that the proportional fixation time to the eye area could be a potential indicator to measure the level of autistic traits. We then calculated the latency to orient the eye area and the latency to disengage the eye area to explore the priority of observation of the eyes. The results showed that compared with the LAT group, the HAT group has a longer latency to orient the eye area (p < 0.05) and has longer latency to disengage the eye area (p < 0.05), illustrating that the HAT group saw the eyes more slowly and left them faster.

Gaze cueing, mental States, and the effect of autistic traits

The ability to interpret and follow the gaze of our social partners is an integral skill in human communication. Recent research has demonstrated that gaze following behaviour is influenced by theory of mind (ToM) processes. However, it has yet to be determined whether the modulation of gaze cueing by ToM is affected by individual differences, such as autistic traits. The aim of this experiment was to establish whether autistic traits in neurotypical populations affect the mediation of gaze cueing by ToM processes. This study used a gaze cueing paradigm within a change detection task. Participants' perception of a gaze cue was manipulated such that they only believed the cue to be able to 'see' in one condition. The results revealed that participants in the Low Autistic Traits group were significantly influenced by the mental state of the gaze cue and were more accurate on valid trials when they believed the cue could 'see'. By contrast, participants in the High Autistic Traits group were also more accurate on valid trials, but this was not influenced by the mental state of the gaze cue. This study therefore provides evidence that autistic traits influence the extent to which mental state attributions modulate social attention in neurotypical adults.

No Influence of Emotional Faces or Autistic Traits on Gaze-Cueing in General Population

The present study addressed the controversial issue of whether autistic traits in the general population are associated with the automatic and fundamental aspects of joint attention through eye gaze. Specifically, we examined whether the degree of autistic traits is associated with the magnitude of reflexive attention orienting in the direction of another's eye gaze embedded in neutral and emotional (angry, fearful, and happy) faces. The cue stimuli changed gaze direction and facial expressions simultaneously. Participants were asked to detect a target that appeared at the left or right of the cue stimuli. The results revealed a robust gaze-cueing effect, such that the reaction time to the target was shorter under the gazed-at-target condition than under the non-gazed-at-target condition. However, emotional expressions did not modulate the gaze-cueing effect. Furthermore, individual differences in autistic traits and emotional characteristics (social anxiety, alexithymia, and emotional disturbances) did not influence the magnitude of the gaze-cueing effect. Although the ability to orient attention in the direction of another's gaze is a fundamental function of social development, the gaze-cueing effect measured in a controlled experiment might not be an elaborate representation of the current social cognitive function, at least in typically developing adults.

Motion or sociality? The cueing effect and temporal course of autistic traits on gaze-triggered attention

Gaze-triggered attention changes have been found in individuals with high autistic traits in the nonclinical population. However, gaze cues used in previous studies imply not only sociality of gaze but also the motion of gaze. To exclude the influence of motion, we manipulated the cue sociality by setting dot cues with similar motion characteristics as gaze cues to explore the underlying reasons of gaze-triggered attention changes in individuals with high autistic traits. We used a cueing paradigm within a visual matching task and recorded individuals' eye movements. Both the RT and eye movement of probe interface showed the benefit from gaze of the low autistic trait group was larger than that from dot and was larger than that of the high autistic trait group. While the high autistic trait group show similar benefit between gaze and dot. Eye movement results showed the dynamic changes of validity effect in two groups. The interaction between autistic traits and cue sociality was not significant within the 500 ms of cue presentation, marginally significant within 500-1,000 ms after cue presentation, but significant after 1,000 ms of cue presentation. The results demonstrated that the changes of gaze-triggered attention in individuals with high autistic traits was mainly caused by the sociality of gaze in the relative late stage.

Associations of subclinical autistic-like traits with brain structural variation using diffusion tensor imaging and voxel-based morphometry

Background

Previous case–control studies of autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) have identified altered brain structure such as altered frontal and temporal cortex volumes, or decreased fractional anisotropy (FA) within the inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus in patients. It remains unclear whether subclinical autistic-like traits might also be related to variation in these brain structures.

Methods

In this study, we analyzed magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data of 250 psychiatrically healthy subjects phenotyped for subclinical autistic-like traits using the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ). For data analysis, we used voxel-based morphometry of T1-MRIs (Computational Anatomy Toolbox) and tract-based spatial statistics for diffusion tensor imaging data.

Results

AQ attention switching subscale correlated negatively with FA values in the bilateral uncinate fasciculus as well as the bilateral inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus. Higher AQ attention switching subscale scores were associated with increased mean diffusivity and radial diffusivity values in the uncinate fasciculus, while axial diffusivity values within this tract show a negative correlation. AQ attention to detail subscale correlated positively with gray matter volume in the right pre- and postcentral gyrus.

Conclusions

We demonstrate that individuals with higher levels of autism-spectrum-like features show decreased white matter integrity in tracts associated with higher-level visual processing and increased cortical volume in areas linked to movement sequencing and working memory. Our results resemble regional brain structure alterations found in individuals with ASD. This offers opportunities to further understand the etiology and pathogenesis of the disorder and shows a subclinical continuum perspective.