Visual Disengagement: Genetic Architecture and Relation to Autistic Traits in the General Population.
Monica Siqueiros Sanchez, Erik Pettersson, Daniel P Kennedy and 4 others
PMID 30859356WHAT IT FOUND
Moving gaze away from a central target was not associated with parent-reported autistic traits.
The Overlap condition did not show its own genetic contribution, so this task did not support visual disengagement as a marker for social communication traits.
Key findings
01In the 492 twins analysed, leaving latency, the time to move gaze away, was not associated with parent-reported autistic traits.
02The Overlap condition, expected to capture visual disengagement, did not show a separate genetic contribution.
03Shared variance in saccade amplitude, a measure of eye-movement accuracy, was strongly influenced by genetic factors (A = 0.82).
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 sample was a general population twin sample, not a clinical autism sample; only 4 children (0.8%) had an autism diagnosis reported. The study looked at late childhood and early adolescence, so it cannot address whether visual disengagement atypicalities appear in infancy. Eye-tracking data were collected from 723 children, but 492 were analysed after quality control and complete-data requirements. The sample was largely representative of the larger twin cohort on sex, but parental education was slightly higher. Autistic traits were measured by parent report on the Social Responsiveness Scale, not by a clinical diagnosis.
Declared interests
Funding is listed from Vetenskapsrådet, Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, and H2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions. No author conflict-of-interest statement is included in the supplied text.
The easy way to misread this
Do not treat this task as a clinical marker for autistic traits. The latencies were influenced by genetic factors overall, but they were not associated with autistic traits and the Overlap condition did not show a separate genetic contribution.