The Selective Social Attention task in children with autism spectrum disorder: Results from the Autism Biomarkers Consortium for Clinical Trials (ABC-CT) feasibility study.
Frederick Shic, Erin C Barney, Adam J Naples and 20 others
PMID 37749934WHAT IT FOUND
The task was feasible in 23 of 25 children with autism and 25 of 26 controls.
School-age children with autism looked less at scenes during direct speech and eye contact, and less at faces during direct speech and joint attention.
Key findings
01The eye-tracking task was feasible: valid data were obtained from 23 of 25 children with autism and 25 of 26 typically developing controls.
02After age and IQ were controlled, children with autism looked less at scenes when the actress used direct speech and eye contact and when she made a sandwich, and looked less at faces when she used direct speech and eye contact and when she cued joint attention.
03Within the autism group, more face looking in the social conditions was associated with lower parent-reported total social-responsiveness T scores, but not with IQ or ADOS severity scores.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The sample was small: 25 children with autism and 26 typically developing controls, and the authors state that small sample sizes limit more granular investigations. Valid eye-tracking data were available for 23 of 25 children with autism and 25 of 26 controls, so the analysis is based on a subset of those enrolled. Typically developing controls were recruited at younger ages, so age differences may affect the comparison. The study is cross-sectional, so it cannot show whether reduced attention to faces persists over time or changes with development. Some condition differences were not significant, including scene looking in joint attention and moving-toy conditions, and face looking in sandwich and moving-toy conditions. Phenotype associations were examined within the autism group and included exploratory subdomain analyses, so they do not establish a clinical diagnostic or treatment-response measure. No treatment was tested, so the study cannot show whether any intervention changes social attention.
Declared interests
No author conflict-of-interest statement is provided in the supplied text. The article is tagged as supported by NIH extramural and non-U.S. government research support.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as evidence that the eye-tracking task is a proven clinical biomarker or diagnostic test for autism. It is a small feasibility study in 25 children with autism and 26 controls, and the authors say larger longitudinal studies are needed.