Cognitive and Brain Sciences Department, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Be'er Sheva, Israel.
National Autism Research Center of Israel, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Be'er Sheva, Israel.
Autism Res. 2020 Jun;13(6):935-946. doi: 10.1002/aur.2234. Epub 2019 Oct 26.
Previous eye-tracking studies have reported that children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) fixate less on faces in comparison to controls. To properly understand social interactions, however, children must gaze not only at faces but also at actions, gestures, body movements, contextual details, and objects, thereby creating specific gaze patterns when observing specific social interactions. We presented three different movies with social interactions to 111 children (71 with ASD) who watched each of the movies twice. Typically developing children viewed the movies in a remarkably predictable and reproducible manner, exhibiting gaze patterns that were similar to the mean gaze pattern of other controls, with strong correlations across individuals (intersubject correlations) and across movie presentations (intra-subject correlations). In contrast, children with ASD exhibited significantly more variable/idiosyncratic gaze patterns that differed from the mean gaze pattern of controls and were weakly correlated across individuals and presentations. Most importantly, quantification of gaze idiosyncrasy in individual children enabled separation of ASD and control children with higher sensitivity and specificity than traditional measures such as time gazing at faces. Individual magnitudes of gaze idiosyncrasy were also significantly correlated with ASD severity and cognitive scores and were significantly correlated across movies and movie presentations, demonstrating clinical sensitivity and reliability. These results suggest that gaze idiosyncrasy is a potent behavioral abnormality that characterizes a considerable number of children with ASD and may contribute to their impaired development. Quantification of gaze idiosyncrasy in individual children may aid in assessing symptom severity and their change in response to treatments. Autism Res 2020, 13: 935-946. © 2019 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. LAY SUMMARY: Typically, developing children watch movies of social interactions in a reliable and predictable manner, attending faces, gestures, actions, body movements, and objects that are relevant to the social interaction and its narrative. Here, we demonstrate that children with ASD watch such movies with significantly more variable/idiosyncratic gaze patterns that differ across individuals and across movie presentations. We demonstrate that quantifying this gaze variability may aid in identifying children with ASD and in determining the severity of their symptoms.
先前的眼动追踪研究报告称，与对照组相比，自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）儿童注视人脸的时间更少。然而，为了正确理解社交互动，儿童不仅必须注视人脸，还必须注视动作、手势、身体动作、上下文细节和物体，从而在观察特定社交互动时形成特定的注视模式。我们向 111 名儿童（71 名患有 ASD）展示了三部不同的社交互动电影，他们每人观看了两遍。典型发育的儿童以一种非常可预测和可重复的方式观看电影，表现出的注视模式与其他对照组的平均注视模式相似，个体之间（个体间相关性）和电影呈现之间（个体内相关性）具有很强的相关性。相比之下，患有 ASD 的儿童表现出的注视模式差异更大，个体之间的相关性很弱，与对照组的平均注视模式也不同。最重要的是，对个体儿童注视模式差异的量化能够比传统的面部注视时间等指标更敏感和特异性地分离 ASD 和对照组儿童。个体注视模式差异的幅度也与 ASD 严重程度和认知评分显著相关，并且在电影和电影呈现之间也显著相关，表现出临床敏感性和可靠性。这些结果表明，注视模式差异是一种强烈的行为异常，它的存在可以在相当数量的 ASD 儿童中得到体现，并且可能导致他们的发育受损。对个体儿童注视模式差异的量化可能有助于评估症状严重程度及其对治疗的反应变化。自闭症研究 2020，13: 935-946。©2019 自闭症国际研究协会，威利期刊，公司。
