Emerson College, Boston, USA.
Brandeis University, Waltham, USA.
Sci Rep. 2019 Sep 2;9(1):12643. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-49039-7.
Atypical eye gaze to social stimuli is one of the most frequently reported and studied social behaviors affected by autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The vast majority of this literature is based on analyses of gaze patterns as participants view social information, such as talking faces, on a computer screen. However, recent results suggest that generalizing gaze behaviors from computer screens to live interactions may not be valid. This study examines between- and within-group differences in gaze behaviors of children with ASD and their neurotypical (NT) peers during a screen-based and a live-interaction task. Results show between-group differences in gaze only for the screen-based, but not the live-interaction task. We also find that gaze behavior of NT children during the screen-based task significantly correlates with their gaze behavior during the live interaction; individuals who direct a higher percentage of gaze to the face in one task also did so in the other task. However, there is no significant relationship between the gaze patterns of children with ASD for those two tasks. These results strongly caution against using gaze of individuals with ASD recorded during screen-based tasks as a proxy for understanding their gaze behavior during live social interactions.
对社会刺激的非典型注视是自闭症谱系障碍 (ASD) 最常被报道和研究的社会行为之一。这方面的文献绝大多数都是基于参与者在计算机屏幕上观看社交信息（如说话的面孔）时的注视模式分析得出的。然而，最近的研究结果表明，将从计算机屏幕上得出的注视行为推广到真实的互动中可能并不成立。本研究考察了 ASD 儿童及其神经典型（NT）同龄人在基于屏幕和真实互动任务中的注视行为的组间和组内差异。结果表明，只有在基于屏幕的任务中存在组间差异，而在真实互动任务中则没有。我们还发现，NT 儿童在基于屏幕的任务中的注视行为与他们在真实互动中的注视行为显著相关；在一个任务中注视面部的比例较高的个体在另一个任务中也会这样做。然而，ASD 儿童在这两个任务中的注视模式之间没有显著关系。这些结果强烈警告人们不要将在基于屏幕的任务中记录的 ASD 个体的注视行为作为理解他们在真实社交互动中的注视行为的替代物。
