Chawarska Katarzyna, Volkmar Fred, Klin Ami
Yale University School of Medicine, Child Study Center, New Haven, CT 06510, USA.
Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2010 Feb;67(2):178-85. doi: 10.1001/archgenpsychiatry.2009.194.
Toddlers with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) exhibit poor face recognition and atypical scanning patterns in response to faces. It is not clear if face-processing deficits are also expressed on an attentional level. Typical individuals require more effort to shift their attention from faces compared with other objects. This increased disengagement cost is thought to reflect deeper processing of these socially relevant stimuli.
To examine if attention disengagement from faces is atypical in the early stages of ASD.
Attention disengagement was tested in a variation of the cued attention task in which participants were required to move their visual attention from face or nonface central fixation stimuli and make a reactive saccade to a peripheral target. The design involved diagnosis as a between-group factor and central fixation stimuli type as a within-group factor.
Participants were taken from a cohort of patients at a university-based specialized clinic or from a pool of subjects participating in a prospective study of social cognition in ASD.
Toddlers with ASD (mean age, 32 months [n = 42]) were compared with toddlers with nonautistic developmental delays (mean age, 29 months [n = 31]) and with typically developing toddlers (mean age, 29 months [n = 46]).
Saccadic reaction time.
Developmentally delayed and typically developing toddlers had more difficulties disengaging visual attention from faces than toddlers with ASD. This effect was not present in response to nonfacial stimuli. These results suggest that toddlers with ASD are not captivated by faces to the same extent as toddlers without ASD and that this effect is not driven by a generalized impairment in disengagement of attention.
The results suggest that face-processing difficulties in toddlers with ASD involve disruption of an attentional mechanism that typically supports deeper processing of these highly socially relevant stimuli.
患有自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）的幼儿在面部识别方面表现不佳，并且对面部的扫描模式也不典型。尚不清楚面部处理缺陷是否也在注意力层面表现出来。与其他物体相比，典型个体将注意力从面部转移需要付出更多努力。这种增加的脱离接触成本被认为反映了对这些社会相关刺激的更深入处理。
研究在ASD早期阶段，从面部脱离注意力是否不典型。
在一种线索化注意力任务的变体中测试注意力脱离，在该任务中，参与者被要求将视觉注意力从面部或非面部中央注视刺激上移开，并对周边目标进行反应性扫视。该设计将诊断作为组间因素，将中央注视刺激类型作为组内因素。
参与者来自一所大学附属专科诊所的一组患者，或来自参与ASD社会认知前瞻性研究的一组受试者。
将患有ASD的幼儿（平均年龄32个月[n = 42]）与患有非自闭症发育迟缓的幼儿（平均年龄29个月[n = 31]）以及发育正常的幼儿（平均年龄29个月[n = 46]）进行比较。
扫视反应时间。
发育迟缓的幼儿和发育正常的幼儿在将视觉注意力从面部脱离方面比患有ASD的幼儿有更多困难。对非面部刺激的反应中不存在这种效应。这些结果表明，患有ASD的幼儿对面部的着迷程度不如没有ASD的幼儿，并且这种效应不是由注意力脱离的普遍损害所驱动的。
结果表明，患有ASD的幼儿在面部处理方面的困难涉及到一种注意力机制的破坏，这种机制通常支持对这些高度社会相关刺激的更深入处理。
