Thorup Emilia, Nyström Pär, Gredebäck Gustaf, Bölte Sven, Falck-Ytter Terje
Uppsala Child and Baby Lab, Department of Psychology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.
Karolinska Institutet Center of Neurodevelopmental Disorders (KIND), Pediatric Neuropsychiatry Unit, Department of Women's and Children's Health, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden ; BUP Stockholm, Center for Psychiatry Research, Stockholm County Council, Stockholm, Sweden.
Mol Autism. 2016 Jan 26;7:12. doi: 10.1186/s13229-016-0069-9. eCollection 2016.
The ability to follow gaze is an important prerequisite for joint attention, which is often compromised in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The direction of both the head and eyes provides cues to other people's attention direction, but previous studies have not separated these factors and their relation to ASD susceptibility. Development of gaze following typically occurs before ASD diagnosis is possible, and studies of high-risk populations are therefore important.
Eye tracking was used to assess gaze following during interaction in a group of 10-month-old infants at high familial risk for ASD (high-risk group) as well as a group of infants with no family history of ASD (low-risk group). The infants watched an experimenter gaze at objects in the periphery. Performance was compared across two conditions: one in which the experimenter moved both the eyes and head toward the objects (Eyes and Head condition) and one that involved movement of the eyes only (Eyes Only condition).
A group by condition interaction effect was found. Specifically, whereas gaze following accuracy was comparable across the two conditions in the low-risk group, infants in the high-risk group were more likely to follow gaze in the Eyes and Head condition than in the Eyes Only condition.
In an ecologically valid social situation, responses to basic non-verbal orienting cues were found to be altered in infants at risk for ASD. The results indicate that infants at risk for ASD may rely disproportionally on information from the head when following gaze and point to the importance of separating information from the eyes and the head when studying social perception in ASD.
追随目光的能力是共同注意的重要前提，而这在自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）儿童中常常受损。头部和眼睛的方向都为他人的注意力方向提供线索，但以往的研究并未区分这些因素及其与ASD易感性的关系。追随目光的能力发展通常在可能进行ASD诊断之前就已出现，因此对高危人群的研究很重要。
采用眼动追踪技术评估一组有ASD高家族风险的10个月大婴儿（高危组）以及一组无ASD家族史的婴儿（低危组）在互动过程中的目光追随情况。婴儿观看一名实验者注视周边的物体。在两种条件下比较表现：一种是实验者将眼睛和头部都转向物体（眼睛和头部条件），另一种是仅涉及眼睛移动（仅眼睛条件）。
发现了组间条件交互效应。具体而言，虽然低危组在两种条件下的目光追随准确性相当，但高危组的婴儿在眼睛和头部条件下比在仅眼睛条件下更有可能追随目光。
在生态有效的社交情境中，发现有ASD风险的婴儿对基本非言语定向线索的反应有所改变。结果表明，有ASD风险的婴儿在追随目光时可能过度依赖来自头部的信息，并指出在研究ASD的社会感知时区分来自眼睛和头部的信息的重要性。
