Attention Allocation During Exploration of Visual Arrays in ASD: Results from the ABC-CT Feasibility Study

• Published in: Journal of autism and developmental disorders Vol. 53; no. 8; pp. 3220 - 3229
• Main Authors: Tsang, Tawny, Naples, Adam J., Barney, Erin C., Xie, Minhang, Bernier, Raphael, Dawson, Geraldine, Dziura, James, Faja, Susan, Jeste, Shafali Spurling, McPartland, James C., Nelson, Charles A., Murias, Michael, Seow, Helen, Sugar, Catherine, Webb, Sara J., Shic, Frederick, Johnson, Scott P.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.08.2023; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Attention; Autism Spectrum Disorder - diagnosis; Autism Spectrum Disorder - psychology; Autism Spectrum Disorders; Behavioral Science and Psychology; Benchmarking; Child; Child and School Psychology; Child, Preschool; Children; Cognitive Ability; Cognitive skills; Complications and side effects; Correlation; CT imaging; Diagnosis; Evaluation; Face; Feasibility; Feasibility Studies; Humans; Interpersonal Competence; Male; Males; Neurosciences; Original Paper; Paradigms; Pediatrics; Pervasive developmental disorders; Psychology; Public Health; Social skills; Tomography, X-Ray Computed; Visual Stimuli; United States; Visual processing; Visual exploration; Visual search; Eye-tracking; Autism spectrum disorder
• ISSN: 0162-3257; 1573-3432
• DOI: 10.1007/s10803-022-05569-0

Visual exploration paradigms involving object arrays have been used to examine salience of social stimuli such as faces in ASD. Recent work suggests performance on these paradigms may associate with clinical features of ASD. We evaluate metrics from a visual exploration paradigm in 4-to-11-year-old children with ASD (n = 23; 18 males) and typical development (TD; n = 23; 13 males). Presented with arrays containing faces and nonsocial stimuli, children with ASD looked less at (p = 0.002) and showed fewer fixations to (p = 0.022) faces than TD children, and spent less time looking at each object on average (p = 0.004). Attention to the screen and faces correlated positively with social and cognitive skills in the ASD group (ps < .05). This work furthers our understanding of objective measures of visual exploration in ASD and its potential for quantifying features of ASD.