What are you looking at? Gaze following with and without target objects in ASD and typical development.
Emilia Thorup, Pär Nyström, Sven Bölte and 1 others
PMID 34903076WHAT IT FOUND
Infants later diagnosed with autism showed typical gaze-following accuracy and looking times compared to peers.
However, when an adult looked at an empty spot, these infants returned their gaze to the adult's face significantly faster than typically developing infants.
Key findings
01Gaze-following accuracy did not differ between infants later diagnosed with autism, high-risk non-diagnosed infants, and typically developing infants.
02When an adult looked at an empty space (no object), infants later diagnosed with autism looked back at the adult's face faster (0.77 s) than typically developing infants (0.97 s).
03Total looking time at the target area or the adult's face did not differ between the groups.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The sample size for the group later diagnosed with autism was small (22 infants), reducing statistical power to detect subtle differences. The 'No Object' condition always appeared last in the block, so order effects or habituation cannot be ruled out. The model looked at an empty hole where a puppet had just disappeared, meaning the 'empty' space was not truly neutral and may have primed attention differently across groups. The study was conducted in a Swedish population, limiting generalizability to other cultural contexts. Four infants in the EL-ASD group had uncertain clinical impairment criteria, though sensitivity analyses showed results remained stable.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest. Funding was provided by various Swedish research foundations and EU initiatives, including the Innovative Medicines Initiative 2 Joint Undertaking.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the faster look-back time in the autism group as evidence of superior social referencing or engagement. The authors suggest it may reflect a lack of attentional heightening to the empty space, or a strategy to resolve ambiguity, but the study design (with puppets disappearing) and small sample size make this finding tentative and not a diagnostic marker.