Northwestern University, Roxelyn and Richard Pepper Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Evanston, IL, USA.
Department of Linguistics and Modern Languages, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong.
Child Neuropsychol. 2023 Apr;29(3):413-444. doi: 10.1080/09297049.2022.2094904. Epub 2022 Jul 29.
Differences in visual attention have been documented in ASD, and appear linked to clinical symptoms. However, most research has been conducted in Western cultures. Because striking differences in visual attention patterns have been documented in other cultures, it is important to understand how culture may influence attentional patterns in ASD. This study compared differences in visual attention in ASD across Western and East Asian cultures, where differences in attention to contextual and global information have been repeatedly demonstrated, to investigate potential culturally-specific ASD phenotypes. One hundred thirty-two total participants included individuals with ASD ( = 24) and controls ( = 47) from Hong Kong (HK), along with a previously studied group of age- and IQ-comparable participants from the United States ( = 26 ASD; = 35 control). Gaze was tracked while participants completed two narrative tasks that differed in social-emotional complexity. Proportions of fixations to face, bodies, and setting were examined across groups using linear mixed-effect models and a series of growth curve models. Cultural differences were found across tasks and groups. Both the ASD and control HK groups attended more to global contextual setting information, more to the body regions, and less toward faces of characters compared to US groups. Growth curve models indicated that these differences attenuated over time in certain stimuli. ASD-related effects were only observed in the more complex stimuli depicting characters with ambiguous facial expressions. Findings indicate a notable cultural influence on visual attention patterns in ASD, and underscore the importance of stimuli complexity in differentiating cultural versus diagnostic effects on attentional styles.
自闭症患者的视觉注意力存在差异，且这些差异与临床症状相关。然而，大多数研究都是在西方文化中进行的。由于其他文化中已经记录到了视觉注意力模式的显著差异，因此了解文化如何影响自闭症患者的注意力模式非常重要。本研究比较了自闭症患者在西方和东亚文化中的视觉注意力差异，这些差异与对上下文和整体信息的注意力差异有关，旨在调查潜在的具有文化特异性的自闭症表型。共有 132 名参与者，包括来自香港的自闭症患者（ = 24 名）和对照组（ = 47 名），以及来自美国的一组年龄和智商相匹配的先前研究参与者（ = 26 名自闭症患者； = 35 名对照组）。参与者在完成两个具有不同社会情感复杂性的叙事任务时，追踪了他们的目光。使用线性混合效应模型和一系列增长曲线模型，在不同的组中检查了注视面孔、身体和背景的比例。在任务和组之间发现了文化差异。与美国组相比，自闭症和对照组的香港参与者更多地关注全局背景信息、身体区域，以及较少地关注角色的面部。增长曲线模型表明，在某些刺激下，这些差异随时间而减弱。仅在描绘具有模糊面部表情的角色的更复杂刺激中观察到与自闭症相关的影响。研究结果表明，自闭症患者的视觉注意力模式存在显著的文化影响，强调了刺激复杂性在区分注意力模式的文化与诊断效应方面的重要性。
