University of Connecticut, USA.
J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2010 Sep;51(9):989-97. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-7610.2010.02262.x. Epub 2010 Apr 26.
Social inattention is common in children with autism whereas associative learning capabilities are considered a relative strength. Identifying early precursors of impairment associated with autism could lead to earlier identification of this disorder. The present study compared social and non-social visual attention patterns as well as associative learning in infant siblings of children with autism (AU sibs) and low-risk (LR) infants at 6 months of age.
Twenty-five AU sibs and 25 LR infants were observed in a novel social-object learning task, within which attention to social and non-social cues was contrasted. Video recorded data were coded for percent duration of gaze to objects or caregiver. Movement rates to activate the toy within the associative learning task were also quantified.
Both groups learned the association between moving a switch and activating a cause-effect toy. AU sibs spent less time looking at caregivers and more time looking at the toy or joystick when their caregivers made no attempts to engage their attention. However, response to caregiver-initiated social bids was comparable for both groups.
Infrequent self-initiated socially directed gaze may be an early marker of later social and communication delays.
自闭症儿童普遍存在社交注意力不集中的现象，而联想学习能力被认为是相对较强的。识别与自闭症相关的早期损伤前特征可能有助于更早地发现这种障碍。本研究比较了自闭症儿童的婴儿兄弟姐妹（AU 兄弟姐妹）和低风险（LR）婴儿在 6 个月大时的社交和非社交视觉注意力模式以及联想学习能力。
在一项新的社会对象学习任务中观察了 25 名 AU 兄弟姐妹和 25 名 LR 婴儿，在该任务中对比了对社会和非社会线索的注意力。对视频记录的数据进行了编码，以确定注视对象或照顾者的时间百分比。在联想学习任务中激活玩具的运动速度也被量化。
两组都学会了移动开关与激活因果玩具之间的关联。当他们的照顾者没有试图引起他们的注意时，AU 兄弟姐妹花在照顾者身上的时间更少，而花在玩具或操纵杆上的时间更多。然而，两组对照顾者发起的社交请求的反应是相当的。
不频繁的自我发起的社交定向注视可能是以后社交和沟通延迟的早期标志。
