"Reading the Mind in the Eyes" in Autistic Adults is Modulated by Valence and Difficulty: An InFoR Study.
Matias Baltazar, Marie-Maude Geoffray, Christopher Chatham and 12 others
PMID 32929870WHAT IT FOUND
Autistic adults and controls did not differ overall on the Eyes Test.
Group differences emerged only for easy items and positive items, so a total score alone may hide these patterns.
Key findings
01The total Eyes Test score did not distinguish autistic adults from controls.
02The groups differed on positive items and easy items, but not on negative, neutral, or difficult items.
03The emotional tone of the items and their difficulty affected performance.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study had 59 participants, which was enough for the overall group comparison but small for the valence and difficulty interactions. The item categories were unbalanced: only one item was both difficult and positive, so the study could not cleanly separate valence from difficulty. The proposed cutoffs came from the same data and need validation in independent samples. The test was the French version, so the results may not generalize to other languages or cultures. The control group did not include people with other psychiatric or neurodevelopmental conditions, so the pattern may not be specific to autism. Reaction times were not measured, so the study cannot tell whether differences reflect automatic processing or deliberate reasoning. The main group comparison was null, so the positive and easy item effects are secondary and should not be read as the primary result.
Declared interests
The InFoR cohort was promoted by Fondation FondaMental, INSERM, and the Roche Institute. This study was sponsored by INSERM through a collaboration with the Roche Institute.
The easy way to misread this
Do not use the total Eyes Test score to diagnose autism in adults, because the groups did not differ overall. The positive and easy item differences were secondary findings, and the proposed cutoffs have not been validated.