Idiosyncratic pupil regulation in autistic children.
Isabel H Bleimeister, Inbar Avni, Michael C Granovetter and 6 others
PMID 39385709WHAT IT FOUND
Autistic children showed more idiosyncratic pupil responses to movies than typically developing children.
This variability was consistent across repeated viewings and was not explained by differences in gaze or baseline pupil size.
Key findings
01Inter-subject correlation of pupil time-courses was significantly lower in the autism group compared to typically developing children across most movie presentations.
02Baseline (tonic) pupil size did not differ significantly between autistic and typically developing children.
03Classification accuracy for distinguishing autistic from typically developing children was highest when using pupil data from a naturalistic home video.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study could not separate the contributions of the pupillary light reflex and locus coeruleus-norepinephrine activity to the observed pupil changes. Data loss was significant, with 30.8% of movies excluded for autistic children compared to 10.7% for typically developing children due to tracking difficulties. Typically developing children did not undergo cognitive testing, so the relationship between pupil idiosyncrasy and cognitive function remains unclear. The groups were not matched by sex, with a higher proportion of males in the autism group.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest. The study was supported by NIH and non-US government grants.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the lower inter-subject correlation as a deficit in pupil regulation or a universal marker of severity. The study found no correlation between this measure and ADOS-2 scores or cognitive ability, and the variability reflects individual differences in response timing rather than a consistent direction of change.