Toutain Manon, Dollion Nicolas, Henry Laurence, Grandgeorge Marine
CNRS, EthoS (Éthologie Animale et Humaine)-UMR 6552, University Rennes, Normandie University, F-35000 Rennes, France.
Laboratoire C2S (Cognition Santé Société)-EA6291, Université Reims Champagne-Ardenne, F-51100 Reims, France.
Children (Basel). 2024 Feb 6;11(2):211. doi: 10.3390/children11020211.
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterized by interaction and communication differences, entailing visual attention skill specificities. Interactions with animals, such as in animal-assisted interventions or with service dogs, have been shown to be beneficial for individuals with ASD. While interacting with humans poses challenges for them, engaging with animals appears to be different. One hypothesis suggests that differences between individuals with ASD's visual attention to humans and to animals may contribute to these interaction differences. We propose a scoping review of the research on the visual attention to animals of youths with ASD. The objective is to review the methodologies and tools used to explore such questions, to summarize the main results, to explore which factors may contribute to the differences reported in the studies, and to deduce how youth with ASD observe animals. Utilizing strict inclusion criteria, we examined databases between 1942 and 2023, identifying 21 studies in international peer-reviewed journals. Three main themes were identified: attentional engagement and detection, visual exploration, and behavior. Collectively, our findings suggest that the visual attention of youths with ASD towards animals appears comparable to that of neurotypical peers, at least in 2D pictures (i.e., eye gaze patterns). Future studies should explore whether these results extend to real-life interactions.
自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）的特征是互动和沟通方面存在差异，这涉及到视觉注意力技能的特殊性。与动物的互动，如在动物辅助干预中或与服务犬互动，已被证明对患有ASD的个体有益。虽然与人类互动对他们来说具有挑战性，但与动物互动似乎有所不同。一种假设认为，ASD患者对人类和动物的视觉注意力差异可能导致了这些互动差异。我们提议对有关ASD青少年对动物的视觉注意力的研究进行一项范围综述。目的是回顾用于探索此类问题的方法和工具，总结主要结果，探究哪些因素可能导致研究中报告的差异，并推断ASD青少年如何观察动物。利用严格的纳入标准，我们检索了1942年至2023年期间的数据库，在国际同行评审期刊中识别出21项研究。确定了三个主要主题：注意力参与和检测、视觉探索以及行为。总体而言，我们的研究结果表明，ASD青少年对动物的视觉注意力至少在二维图片（即目光注视模式）方面似乎与神经典型同龄人相当。未来的研究应探索这些结果是否适用于现实生活中的互动。
