Brittenham Chloe, Wagner Jennifer B, Westendorf Anthony, Tager-Flusberg Helen, Nelson Charles A
Departments of Pediatrics and Neuroscience, Albert Einstein College of Medicine & Montefiore Medical Center, Bronx, NY, United States; Department of Psychology, The Graduate Center, City University of New York, New York, NY, United States; Department of Psychology, College of Staten Island, City University of New York, Staten Island, NY, United States.
Department of Psychology, The Graduate Center, City University of New York, New York, NY, United States; Department of Psychology, College of Staten Island, City University of New York, Staten Island, NY, United States.
Infant Behav Dev. 2025 Jun 20;80:102097. doi: 10.1016/j.infbeh.2025.102097.
Typical development shows early biases in face attention during infancy, characterized by face inversion effects and increased attention to the left side of the face. In autism spectrum disorder (ASD), face scanning patterns often differ, with reduced inversion effects and left-side biases. The current study examined inversion effects, side biases, and pupil responses in EL and TL infants at 7, 10, and 13 months using linear mixed modeling. TL infants showed greater looking to the left side of the face than EL infants both over the full trial duration and in the 500-1000 ms trial window. Also, in the 500-1000 ms window, a significant left versus right side difference was observed only in the TL group. Pupil responses revealed an interaction between group and age, with EL infants showing a larger pupil size increase over time. These findings suggest that elevated ASD likelihood may be linked to early face-processing differences, such as reduced left gaze bias and greater pupil increases in infancy. Further research is necessary to determine if these patterns are specific to faces or reflect broader atypicalities in hemispheric asymmetry and autonomic function, and how these differences may contribute to later emerging features of ASD.
典型发育表现为婴儿期面部注意力存在早期偏向，其特征为面部倒置效应以及对面部左侧的关注度增加。在自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）中，面部扫描模式往往有所不同，倒置效应减弱且左侧偏向减少。本研究使用线性混合模型，对7、10和13个月大的早发型（EL）和晚发型（TL）婴儿的倒置效应、侧部偏向和瞳孔反应进行了研究。在整个试验过程以及500 - 1000毫秒的试验窗口内，TL婴儿比EL婴儿对面部左侧的注视时间更长。此外，在500 - 1000毫秒的窗口内，仅在TL组中观察到显著的左侧与右侧差异。瞳孔反应揭示了组和年龄之间的相互作用，EL婴儿随着时间推移瞳孔大小增加幅度更大。这些发现表明，较高的ASD患病可能性可能与早期面部处理差异有关，例如婴儿期左侧注视偏向减少和瞳孔增大幅度更大。有必要进一步研究这些模式是否仅针对面部，还是反映了半球不对称和自主功能方面更广泛的异常，以及这些差异如何导致ASD后期出现的特征。
