Zhang Ludan, Guan Xin, Xue Huiqin, Liu Xiaoya, Zhang Bo, Liu Shuang, Ming Dong
Academy of Medical Engineering and Translational Medicine, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China.
Tianjin Key Laboratory of Brain Science and Neuroengineering, Tianjin, China.
BMC Psychiatry. 2025 Apr 30;25(1):440. doi: 10.1186/s12888-025-06896-z.
Autism is a neurodevelopmental condition more prevalent in males, with sex differences emerging in both prevalence and core symptoms. However, most studies investigating behavioral and cognitive features of autism tend to include more male samples, leading to a male-biased understanding. The sex imbalance limits the specificity of these features, especially in female individuals with autism. Hence, it is necessary to explore sex-related differences in behavioral-cognitive traits linked to autism in the general population.
In this study, we designed a dynamic emotion-discrimination task to investigate sex differences in attention to emotional stimuli among the general population with autistic traits. Behavioral and eye movement data were recorded during the task, and the Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ) was used to assess autistic traits. Qualitative and quantitative methods were used to analyze gaze patterns in male and female groups. Additionally, correlation analyses were conducted to examine the relationship between AQ scores and proportion of fixation time in both groups.
Significant sex differences in attention to the eye regions of faces were observed, with females focusing more on the eyes than males. Correlation analyses revealed that, in males, lower eye-looking was associated with higher levels of autistic traits, whereas no such association was found in females.
Overall, these results reveal that attention patterns to emotional faces differed between females and males, and autistic traits predicted the trend of eye-looking in males. These findings suggest that sex-related stratification in social attention should be considered in clinical contexts.
自闭症是一种神经发育障碍，在男性中更为普遍，在患病率和核心症状方面均存在性别差异。然而，大多数研究自闭症行为和认知特征的研究倾向于纳入更多男性样本，导致理解存在男性偏差。这种性别失衡限制了这些特征的特异性，尤其是在自闭症女性个体中。因此，有必要探索一般人群中与自闭症相关的行为认知特征的性别差异。
在本研究中，我们设计了一项动态情绪辨别任务，以调查具有自闭症特征的普通人群在对情绪刺激的注意力方面的性别差异。任务期间记录行为和眼动数据，并使用自闭症谱系商数（AQ）评估自闭症特征。采用定性和定量方法分析男性和女性组的注视模式。此外，进行相关性分析以检查两组中AQ分数与注视时间比例之间的关系。
观察到在对面部眼睛区域的注意力方面存在显著性别差异，女性比男性更关注眼睛。相关性分析显示，在男性中，较少注视眼睛与较高水平的自闭症特征相关，而在女性中未发现这种关联。
总体而言，这些结果表明，男性和女性对情绪化面孔的注意力模式不同，自闭症特征预测了男性的注视趋势。这些发现表明，在临床环境中应考虑社会注意力方面的性别分层。
