Social attention to activities in children and adults with autism spectrum disorder: effects of context and age.
Dzmitry A Kaliukhovich, Nikolay V Manyakov, Abigail Bangerter and 10 others
PMID 33076994WHAT IT FOUND
Children and adults with autism looked less at actors' heads and more at the shared activity than typically developing controls.
Unlike toddlers with autism, they did not look more at background distractors, and their attention did not shift based on the actors' gaze direction.
Key findings
01Individuals with ASD spent more time looking at the shared activity and less time looking at the actors' heads compared to typically developing controls.
02Typically developing controls adjusted their attention based on the actors' gaze direction, whereas individuals with ASD did not show this modulation.
03There was no significant difference between the groups in the amount of time spent looking at background distractors.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
The study excluded individuals with an IQ below 60, so findings may not apply to those with more severe intellectual disability. The sample had a large age range (6–63 years), which may mask developmental nuances. The TD group was smaller than the ASD group and had less detailed characterization. The study was cross-sectional, so it cannot determine how these attention patterns change within an individual over time. Multiple statistical comparisons were made without strict correction, so some correlations with symptom severity should be treated with caution.
Declared interests
The study was funded by Janssen Research and Development, LLC.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that eye-tracking patterns observed in toddlers with autism apply to older children and adults. This study found that older individuals with autism did not show the increased attention to background distractors seen in toddlers, but instead showed a distinct pattern of reduced attention to faces and a lack of response to gaze cues.