Autistic Traits Mediate Reductions in Social Attention in Adults with Anorexia Nervosa.
Jess Kerr-Gaffney, Luke Mason, Emily Jones and 4 others
PMID 32910314WHAT IT FOUND
Adults with current anorexia nervosa looked less at faces in a social video than recovered adults or controls.
The difference was associated with higher autistic-trait scores, not with anorexia alone.
Key findings
01People with current anorexia nervosa spent less time looking at faces than people recovered from anorexia nervosa and healthy controls.
02Higher autistic-trait scores predicted less time looking at faces over and above group membership, and the group difference was not significant after accounting for those scores.
03There were no group differences in how quickly people first looked at a face or in the relative balance of looking at the eyes versus the mouth.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study measured people at one time point, so it cannot show that anorexia nervosa or autistic traits caused the differences in face looking. Participants watched a video of people on a screen rather than interacting with a real person, so the eye-tracking results may not reflect real conversation. Autistic traits were measured by a self-report questionnaire, not by a diagnostic autism interview, and the authors note that anxiety, depression, or alexithymia could influence those scores. The model using autistic-trait scores explained only a small part of the variation in face looking, so other factors likely matter. The sample was mostly female and limited to adults aged 18 to 55, so it says little about males or adolescents. Recovered participants had been recovered for an average of 4.44 years, so results may not apply to people who have recently recovered. Some recruited participants were excluded for poor eye-tracking data or outliers, and 129 were analysed.
Declared interests
Funding was from the Economic and Social Research Council. The supplied text does not include an author conflict-of-interest declaration.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that anorexia nervosa itself causes reduced face looking. The study compared groups at one time point, and it found that higher autistic-trait scores accounted for the group difference. It did not test whether treatment or changes in anorexia symptoms would alter attention.