Gauging facial feature viewing preference as a stable individual trait in autism spectrum disorder.
Gabrielle E Reimann, Catherine Walsh, Kelsey D Csumitta and 4 others
PMID 34008916WHAT IT FOUND
Viewing preferences for eyes, nose and mouth become stable when enough movie clips are analyzed.
High-functioning autistic males were less consistent and more variable than typical peers, looked less at faces and the nose, but not less at eyes or mouths.
Key findings
01A person's share of face looking time spent on eyes, nose or mouth became more consistent as more movie clips were analyzed, converging to a stable mean in both groups.
02Participants with ASD showed significantly less consistent looking at the same facial feature across movie clips and significantly greater variability for eye, nose and mouth looking times (p < 0.001).
03When the full set of movie clips was analyzed, participants with ASD fixated on the face less than TD participants (t = 3.81; p = 3.08 × 10 −4), TD participants attended more to the nose (t = 3.52; p = 7.73 × 10 −4), and eye and mouth looking did not differ (eye p = 0.50; mouth p = 0.14).
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
Only high-functioning males with ASD were studied, so results may not apply to females, lower IQ levels, or the wider autism spectrum. Seventeen participants with ASD were omitted for incomplete testing, poor eye tracking, not meeting diagnosis, scheduling conflicts, IQ cutoff, medical conditions, or loss to follow-up, and the paper does not state the final analyzed TD count. All data were collected in one session, so day-to-day variation in gaze was not tested. The task was free viewing of short movie clips from different Hollywood films, so results may not apply to clinical conversation, a single longer film, or a directed task. The study measured gaze, not communication, function or treatment response, so it does not show that any therapy should change.
Declared interests
The article is listed as supported by N.I.H. extramural and U.S. Government non-P.H.S. research support. Authors declare no competing interests.
The easy way to misread this
Do not treat a single short eye-tracking clip as a stable gaze profile. With one clip, group differences varied widely; estimates became stable only after many clips, and ASD gaze remained more variable.