Çalışır Öykü Mançe, Çakır Murat Perit, Acartürk Cengiz, Atbaşoğlu Eşref Cem
Ankara University Brain Research Center, Ankara, Türkiye.
Department of Educational Sciences, Program of Counseling and Guidance, Ankara University Faculty of Educational Sciences, Ankara, Türkiye.
Noro Psikiyatr Ars. 2025 Aug 22;62(3):220-227. doi: 10.29399/npa.28839. eCollection 2025.
Joint attention (JA) is a fundamental aspect of social interaction and a cornerstone of social communication. This study explores factors influencing JA in adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) using an interactive, dual eye-tracking paradigm during a tangram puzzle computer gameplay. The JA performance of adults with ASD and a typically developing non-clinical control group (TD-NCC) was assessed alongside partner familiarity (familiar / stranger), partner roles (presenter / operator) and gaze cue (present / absent). Two main objectives were: 1) to evaluate JA through gaze recurrence (GR) in adults with ASD, and 2) to examine the effect of partner familiarity on JA by comparing the performance in the task conducted with either a familiar or an unfamiliar partner (stranger).
The sample consisted of 42 participants (21 adults with ASD; ages 18-50, 9 females and 12 males and 21 TD-NCC; ages 21-50, 11 females and 10 males). Two non-intrusive desktop eye trackers simultaneously recorded gaze during the JA tangram task. Gaze recurrence was used as an indicator of JA. The gaze cue (present/absent) was a semi-transparent indicator showing where to look. Additionally, to control for potential eye pathophysiology in JA, saccade and anti-saccade tasks were applied to the eye movements of each participant.
The Linear Mixed Effect Model revealed that GR was significantly lower in the ASD group compared to controls. However, the presence of a gaze cue significantly improved the ASD group's GR, especially when interacting with a familiar partner under gaze-cue on conditions.
Understanding factors influencing JA in autism may foster further exploratory studies and significantly impact future research. Eye movements may serve as objective, quantitative, and non-invasive biomarkers for ASD, particularly in interactive gaming contexts.
联合注意（JA）是社会互动的一个基本方面，也是社会交流的基石。本研究使用一种交互式双眼追踪范式，在七巧板拼图电脑游戏过程中，探索影响自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）成年人联合注意的因素。评估了ASD成年人和典型发育的非临床对照组（TD-NCC）在联合注意方面的表现，同时考虑了伙伴熟悉程度（熟悉/陌生）、伙伴角色（展示者/操作者）和注视提示（存在/不存在）。两个主要目标是：1）通过ASD成年人的注视重现（GR）来评估联合注意；2）通过比较与熟悉或陌生伙伴进行任务时的表现，研究伙伴熟悉程度对联合注意的影响。
样本包括42名参与者（21名ASD成年人，年龄18 - 50岁，9名女性和12名男性；21名TD-NCC，年龄21 - 50岁，11名女性和10名男性）。两个非侵入式桌面眼动仪在联合注意七巧板任务期间同时记录注视情况。注视重现被用作联合注意的指标。注视提示（存在/不存在）是一个半透明指标，显示看的位置。此外，为了控制联合注意中潜在的眼部病理生理学，对每个参与者的眼动进行了扫视和反扫视任务测试。
线性混合效应模型显示，与对照组相比ASD组的注视重现显著更低。然而，注视提示的存在显著改善了ASD组的注视重现，特别是在注视提示条件下与熟悉伙伴互动时。
了解影响自闭症联合注意的因素可能会促进进一步的探索性研究，并对未来研究产生重大影响。眼动可能作为ASD的客观、定量和非侵入性生物标志物，特别是在交互式游戏环境中。
