Scientific Institute, IRCCS E. Medea, Child Psychopathology Unit, Bosisio Parini, Lecco, Italy.
Department of Brain and Behavioral Sciences, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy.
Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2024 Nov;166:105872. doi: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2024.105872. Epub 2024 Sep 3.
Pupillometry has gained attention as a valuable tool for assessing autonomic nervous system activity and studying phasic changes in pupil size to comprehend underlying neurocognitive mechanisms. However, knowledge regarding pupillary responses to social processing in autism is limited. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis, examining research studies on pupil size changes that compare social and non-social stimuli in autism. Electronic searches were performed for articles up to September 2023 and relevant studies were evaluated following PRISMA guidelines. Out of 284 articles screened, 14 studies were eligible for systematic review. The results indicated that non-autistic individuals showed larger pupil size for social compared to non-social stimuli (g = 0.54; 95 % CI [0.25, 0.82]), whereas autistic individuals seemed to exhibit no differences between the two conditions. However, high heterogeneity was observed between studies in autistic populations, compromising interpretability. Despite such limitations, pupillary responses may constitute an objective physiological marker of social processing in autism. This review emphasizes the need for further investigations into pupillary responses in autism across different life stages.
瞳孔测量法作为一种评估自主神经系统活动和研究瞳孔大小的阶段性变化以理解潜在神经认知机制的有效工具，已引起关注。然而，目前对于自闭症患者的社会处理中的瞳孔反应的了解有限。我们进行了系统回顾和荟萃分析，研究了比较自闭症患者社会和非社会刺激的瞳孔大小变化的研究。电子检索截止到 2023 年 9 月，并按照 PRISMA 指南评估了相关研究。在筛选出的 284 篇文章中，有 14 篇符合系统综述的标准。结果表明，与非社会刺激相比，非自闭症个体的瞳孔对社会刺激的反应更大（g=0.54；95%置信区间[0.25,0.82]），而自闭症个体似乎在这两种条件之间没有差异。然而，在自闭症人群中，研究之间存在高度异质性，影响了结果的可解释性。尽管存在这些局限性，瞳孔反应可能是自闭症患者社会处理的客观生理标记。本综述强调了在不同生命阶段进一步研究自闭症患者瞳孔反应的必要性。
