Responding to Other People's Direct Gaze: Alterations in Gaze Behavior in Infants at Risk for Autism Occur on Very Short Timescales.
Pär Nyström, Sven Bölte, Terje Falck-Ytter
PMID 28871495WHAT IT FOUND
Infants at risk for autism looked less at an adult's face for 300 to 1000 ms after the adult made direct eye contact.
This brief drop in response was specific to direct gaze, as overall face looking times did not differ between groups.
Key findings
01High-risk infants showed significantly less change in face preference than low-risk infants between 300 and 1000 ms after direct gaze.
02When looking at the whole play session, there was no difference in overall face preference between the two groups.
03The difference in response to direct gaze was observed even when the infant was initially looking at a toy, suggesting the effect is not just about orienting attention.
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 infants at risk for autism, not those diagnosed with it, and did not follow them to see if they later developed autism. The interaction was naturalistic, so the adult's behavior could have been influenced by the infant's response, although control analyses suggested this was unlikely to explain the results. The study used live interaction, which is ecologically valid but makes it difficult to control every aspect of the adult's behavior perfectly.
Declared interests
The study was funded by the Swedish Research Council, ESF COST Action, EU-MSCA, and Riksbankens Jubileumsfond. No conflicts of interest are reported.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the lack of difference in overall face looking time as evidence that these infants process social cues normally. The study shows that the difference is very brief and specific to the moment of direct eye contact, which would be missed by standard long-duration observations.