1
|
Zhou R, Xie X, Wang J, Ma B, Hao X. Why do children with autism spectrum disorder have abnormal visual perception? Front Psychiatry 2023; 14:1087122. [PMID: 37255685 PMCID: PMC10225551 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1087122] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/02/2022] [Accepted: 03/28/2023] [Indexed: 06/01/2023] Open
Abstract
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is associated with severe impairment in social functioning. Visual information processing provides nonverbal cues that support social interactions. ASD children exhibit abnormalities in visual orientation, continuous visual exploration, and visual-spatial perception, causing social dysfunction, and mechanisms underlying these abnormalities remain unclear. Transmission of visual information depends on the retina-lateral geniculate nucleus-visual cortex pathway. In ASD, developmental abnormalities occur in rapid expansion of the visual cortex surface area with constant thickness during early life, causing abnormal transmission of the peak of the visual evoked potential (P100). We hypothesized that abnormal visual perception in ASD are related to the abnormal visual information transmission and abnormal development of visual cortex in early life, what's more, explored the mechanisms of abnormal visual symptoms to provide suggestions for future research.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Rongyi Zhou
- Department of Pediatrics, The First Affiliated Hospital of Henan University of Chinese Medicine, Zhengzhou, China
| | - Xinyue Xie
- Department of Pediatrics, The First Affiliated Hospital of Henan University of Chinese Medicine, Zhengzhou, China
| | - Jiaojiao Wang
- Henan Provincial People's Hospital, Henan Institute of Ophthalmology, Zhengzhou, China
| | - Bingxiang Ma
- Department of Pediatrics, The First Affiliated Hospital of Henan University of Chinese Medicine, Zhengzhou, China
| | - Xin Hao
- Renmin University of China, Beijing, China
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Attentional Engagement and Disengagement Differences for Circumscribed Interest Objects in Young Chinese Children with Autism. Brain Sci 2022; 12:brainsci12111461. [DOI: 10.3390/brainsci12111461] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/13/2022] [Revised: 10/16/2022] [Accepted: 10/25/2022] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
The current study aimed to investigate attentional processing differences for circumscribed interest (CI) and non-CI objects in young Chinese children with autism spectrum condition (ASC) and typically developing (TD) controls. In Experiment 1, a visual preference task explored attentional allocation to cartoon CI and non-CI materials between the two groups. We found that ASC children (n = 22, 4.95 ± 0.59 years) exhibited a preference for CI-related objects compared to non-CI objects, and this effect was absent in the TD children (n = 22, 5.14 ± 0.44 years). Experiment 2 utilized the traditional gap-overlap paradigm (GOP) to investigate attentional disengagement from CI or non-CI items in both groups (ASC: n = 20, 5.92 ± 1.13 years; TD: n = 25, 5.77 ± 0.77 years). There were no group or stimulus interactions in this study. Experiment 3 adopted a modified GOP (MGOP) to further explore disengagement in the two groups (ASC: n = 20, 5.54 ± 0.95 years; TD: n = 24, 5.75 ± 0.52 years), and the results suggested that exogenous disengagement performance was preserved in the ASC group, but the children with ASC exhibited increased endogenous attentional disengagement compared to TD peers. Moreover, endogenous disengagement was influenced further in the presence of CI-related objects in the ASC children. The current results have implications for understanding how the nature of engagement and disengagement processes can contribute to differences in the development of core cognitive skills in young children with ASC.
Collapse
|
3
|
Nakagawa A, Sukigara M. Attentional asymmetry in orienting and alertness and its relationship to temperament: A longitudinal study of infants aged 6-24 months. Infant Behav Dev 2022; 69:101766. [PMID: 36049373 DOI: 10.1016/j.infbeh.2022.101766] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/24/2021] [Revised: 08/23/2022] [Accepted: 08/23/2022] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Abstract
Previous research suggests that difficulties in orienting to visual stimuli directed by the right hemisphere are related to parental reports of distress and may be an early sign of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). One possible reason for this difficulty is infants' ability to achieve high levels of alertness, which also depends on the right hemisphere. This study examines the relationship between phasic alertness and asymmetry in visual orienting in typically-developing 6-24-month-old infants using the overlap paradigm. Participants were given a spatially non-directive warning signal shortly before the onset of the peripheral target. The signal reduced latencies in both overlap and no-overlap conditions. No main effects of age and visual field or interaction were found. However, results confirm the negative association between temperamental soothability and disengagement difficulty toward the left visual field at 6 months. This is discussed from the viewpoint of early left visual field attentional bias in relation to social cognition.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Atsuko Nakagawa
- Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Nagoya City University, Nagoya, Japan.
| | - Masune Sukigara
- Department of Nursing, Faculty of Health Sciences, Komatsu University, Komatsu, Japan
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Zhao S, Liu Y, Wei K. Pupil-Linked Arousal Response Reveals Aberrant Attention Regulation among Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. J Neurosci 2022; 42:5427-5437. [PMID: 35641188 PMCID: PMC9270919 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.0223-22.2022] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/25/2022] [Revised: 05/08/2022] [Accepted: 05/11/2022] [Indexed: 01/09/2023] Open
Abstract
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a developmental disorder that is characterized by difficulties with social interaction and interpersonal communication. It has been argued that abnormal attentional function to exogenous stimuli precedes and contributes to the core ASD symptoms. Notably, the locus ceruleus (LC) and its noradrenergic projections throughout the brain modulate attentional function, but the extent to which this locus ceruleus-norepinephrine (LC-NE) system influences attention in individuals with ASD, who frequently exhibit dysregulated alerting and attention orienting, is unknown. We examined dynamic attention control in girls and boys with ASD at rest using the pupil dilation response (PDR) as a noninvasive measure of LC-NE activity. When gender- and age-matched neurotypical participants were passively exposed to an auditory stream, their PDR decreased for recurrent stimuli but remained sensitive to surprising deviant stimuli. In contrast, children with ASD showed less habituation to recurrent stimuli as well as a diminished phasic response to deviants, particularly those containing social information. Their tonic habituation impairment predicts their phasic orienting impairment, and both impairments correlated with the severity of ASD symptom. Because of the fact that these pupil-linked responses are observed when individuals passively listen without any task engagement, our findings imply that the intricate and dynamic attention allocation mechanism, mediated by the subcortical LC-NE system, is impaired in ASD.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Autistic individuals show attentional abnormalities to even simple sensory inputs, which emerge even before formal diagnosis. One possible mechanism behind these abnormalities is a malfunctioning pacemaker of their attention system, the locus ceruleus-norepinephrine pathway. Here we found, according to the pupillary response (a noradrenergic activity proxy), autistic children are hypersensitive to repeated sounds but hyposensitive to surprising deviant sounds when compared with age-matched controls. Importantly, hypersensitivity to repetitions predicts hyposensitivity to deviant sounds, and both abnormalities positively correlate to the severity of autistic symptoms. This provides strong evidence that autistic children have faulty noradrenergic regulation, which might underly the attentional atypicalities previously evidenced in various cortical responses in autistic individuals.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Sijia Zhao
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX2 6AE, United Kingdom
| | - Yajie Liu
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100080, China
- Key Laboratory of Machine Perception (Ministry of Education), Peking University, Beijing 100080, China
| | - Kunlin Wei
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100080, China
- Key Laboratory of Machine Perception (Ministry of Education), Peking University, Beijing 100080, China
| |
Collapse
|
5
|
Kadlaskar G, Bergmann S, McNally Keehn R, Seidl A, Keehn B. Equivalent Behavioral Facilitation to Tactile Cues in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Brain Sci 2021; 11:brainsci11050625. [PMID: 34068187 PMCID: PMC8153018 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci11050625] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/16/2021] [Revised: 05/08/2021] [Accepted: 05/09/2021] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
The alerting network, a subcomponent of attention, enables humans to respond to novel information. Children with ASD have shown equivalent alerting in response to visual and/or auditory stimuli compared to typically developing (TD) children. However, it is unclear whether children with ASD and TD show equivalent alerting to tactile stimuli. We examined (1) whether tactile cues affect accuracy and reaction times in children with ASD and TD, (2) whether the duration between touch-cues and auditory targets impacts performance, and (3) whether behavioral responses in the tactile cueing task are associated with ASD symptomatology. Six- to 12-year-olds with ASD and TD participated in a tactile-cueing task and were instructed to respond with a button press to a target sound /a/. Tactile cues were presented at 200, 400, and 800 ms (25% each) prior to the auditory target. The remaining trials (25%) were presented without tactile cues. Findings suggested that both groups showed equivalent alerting responses to tactile cues. Additionally, all children were faster to respond to auditory targets at longer cue–target intervals. Finally, there was an association between rate of facilitation and RRB scores in all children, suggesting that patterns of responding to transient phasic cues may be related to ASD symptomatology.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Girija Kadlaskar
- Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA; (S.B.); (A.S.); (B.K.)
- Correspondence: ; Tel.: +1-765-409-3573
| | - Sophia Bergmann
- Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA; (S.B.); (A.S.); (B.K.)
| | - Rebecca McNally Keehn
- Department of Pediatrics, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN 46202, USA;
| | - Amanda Seidl
- Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA; (S.B.); (A.S.); (B.K.)
| | - Brandon Keehn
- Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA; (S.B.); (A.S.); (B.K.)
- Department of Psychological Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA
| |
Collapse
|
6
|
Shirama A, Takeda T, Ohta H, Iwanami A, Toda S, Kato N. Atypical alert state control in adult patients with ADHD: A pupillometry study. PLoS One 2020; 15:e0244662. [PMID: 33378354 PMCID: PMC7773233 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0244662] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/20/2020] [Accepted: 12/15/2020] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Although behavioral studies have repeatedly demonstrated that individuals with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have deficits in alertness, little is known about its underlying neural basis. It is hypothesized that pupil diameter reflects the firing of norepinephrine (NE) neurons in the locus coeruleus (LC), and that the LC-NE neuromodulatory system for regulating alertness may be dysfunctional in ADHD. To clinically and non-invasively examine this hypothesis, we monitored the kinetics of pupil diameter in response to stimuli and compared them between adults with ADHD (n = 17) and typically developing (TD) adults (n = 23) during an auditory continuous performance task. Individuals in the ADHD group exhibited a significantly larger tonic pupil diameter, and a suppressed stimulus-evoked phasic pupil dilation, compared to those in the TD group. These findings provide support for the idea that the aberrant regulatory control of pupil diameter in adults with ADHD may be consistent with a compromised state of alertness resulting from a hyperactivated LC-NE system.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Aya Shirama
- Medical Institute of Developmental Disabilities Research, Showa University, Tokyo, Japan
- NTT Communication Science Laboratories, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation, Kanagawa, Japan
- * E-mail: (AS); (ST)
| | - Toshinobu Takeda
- Medical Institute of Developmental Disabilities Research, Showa University, Tokyo, Japan
- Faculty of Letters Ryukoku University, Kyoto, Japan
| | - Haruhisa Ohta
- Medical Institute of Developmental Disabilities Research, Showa University, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Akira Iwanami
- Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Showa University, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Shigenobu Toda
- Department of Psychiatry, Showa University East Hospital, Showa University, Tokyo, Japan
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, Kanazawa University, Kanazawa, Japan
- * E-mail: (AS); (ST)
| | - Nobumasa Kato
- Medical Institute of Developmental Disabilities Research, Showa University, Tokyo, Japan
| |
Collapse
|
7
|
Glennon JM, D'Souza H, Mason L, Karmiloff-Smith A, Thomas MSC. Visuo-attentional correlates of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in children with Down syndrome: A comparative study with children with idiopathic ASD. RESEARCH IN DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES 2020; 104:103678. [PMID: 32505966 PMCID: PMC7429984 DOI: 10.1016/j.ridd.2020.103678] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/06/2019] [Revised: 04/25/2020] [Accepted: 04/27/2020] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Children with Down syndrome (DS) are at increased likelihood of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) relative to the general population. To better understand the nature of this comorbidity, we examined the visuo-attentional processes associated with autistic trait expression in children with DS, focusing specifically on attentional disengagement and visual search performance. METHOD We collected eye-tracking data from children with DS (n = 15) and children with idiopathic ASD (iASD, n = 16) matched according to chronological age. Seven children with DS had a formal clinical diagnosis of ASD (DS+ASD). RESULTS In children with iASD, but not DS, higher autistic trait levels were associated with decreased temporal facilitation on a gap-overlap task, implying increased visuospatial orienting efficiency. In all cases, higher autistic trait levels were associated with improved visual search performance according to decreased target detection latency. On a visual search task, children with DS+ASD outperformed their peers with DS-ASD, mirroring the phenotypic advantage associated with iASD. We found no evidence of a relationship between attentional disengagement and visual search performance, providing preliminary evidence of a differentiation in terms of underlying visuo-attentional mechanism. CONCLUSION We illustrate the value of progressing beyond insensitive behavioural measures of phenotypic description to examine, in a more fine-grained way, the attentional features associated with ASD comorbidity in children with DS.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Jennifer M Glennon
- Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Department of Psychological Sciences, Birkbeck College, University of London, United Kingdom.
| | - Hana D'Souza
- Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Department of Psychological Sciences, Birkbeck College, University of London, United Kingdom; Department of Psychology & Newnham College, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | - Luke Mason
- Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Department of Psychological Sciences, Birkbeck College, University of London, United Kingdom
| | - Annette Karmiloff-Smith
- Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Department of Psychological Sciences, Birkbeck College, University of London, United Kingdom
| | - Michael S C Thomas
- Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Department of Psychological Sciences, Birkbeck College, University of London, United Kingdom
| |
Collapse
|
8
|
The Influence of Irrelevant Visual Distractors on Eye Movement Control in Chinese Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Evidence from the Remote Distractor Paradigm. J Autism Dev Disord 2020; 50:500-512. [PMID: 31673908 PMCID: PMC6994527 DOI: 10.1007/s10803-019-04271-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
The current study examined eye movement control in autistic (ASD) children. Simple targets were presented in isolation, or with central, parafoveal, or peripheral distractors synchronously. Sixteen children with ASD (47–81 months) and nineteen age and IQ matched typically developing children were instructed to look to the target as accurately and quickly as possible. Both groups showed high proportions (40%) of saccadic errors towards parafoveal and peripheral distractors. For correctly executed eye movements to the targets, centrally presented distractors produced the longest latencies (time taken to initiate eye movements), followed by parafoveal and peripheral distractor conditions. Central distractors had a greater effect in the ASD group, indicating evidence for potential atypical voluntary attentional control in ASD children.
Collapse
|
9
|
Siqueiros Sanchez M, Pettersson E, Kennedy DP, Bölte S, Lichtenstein P, D'Onofrio BM, Falck-Ytter T. Visual Disengagement: Genetic Architecture and Relation to Autistic Traits in the General Population. J Autism Dev Disord 2020; 50:2188-2200. [PMID: 30859356 PMCID: PMC7261271 DOI: 10.1007/s10803-019-03974-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/02/2023]
Abstract
Visual disengagement has been hypothesized as an endophenotype for autism. In this study we used twin modelling to assess the role of genetics in basic measures of visual disengagement, and tested their putative association to autistic traits in the general population. We used the Gap Overlap task in a sample of 492 twins. Results showed that most of the covariance among eye movement latencies across conditions was shared and primarily genetic. Further, there were unique genetic contributions to the Gap condition, but not to the Overlap condition-i.e. the one theorized to capture visual disengagement. We found no phenotypic association between autistic traits and disengagement, thus not supporting the hypothesis of visual disengagement as an endophenotype for autistic traits.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Monica Siqueiros Sanchez
- Center of Neurodevelopmental Disorders (KIND), Division of Neuropsychiatry, Department of Women's and Children's Health, Karolinska Institutet, 113 30, Stockholm, Sweden
- Center of Psychiatry Research, Stockholm County Council, 113 64, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Erik Pettersson
- Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, 171 65, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Daniel P Kennedy
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, 47405, USA
| | - Sven Bölte
- Center of Neurodevelopmental Disorders (KIND), Division of Neuropsychiatry, Department of Women's and Children's Health, Karolinska Institutet, 113 30, Stockholm, Sweden
- Center of Psychiatry Research, Stockholm County Council, 113 64, Stockholm, Sweden
- Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Stockholm County Council, 113 30, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Paul Lichtenstein
- Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, 171 65, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Brian M D'Onofrio
- Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, 171 65, Stockholm, Sweden
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, 47405, USA
| | - Terje Falck-Ytter
- Center of Neurodevelopmental Disorders (KIND), Division of Neuropsychiatry, Department of Women's and Children's Health, Karolinska Institutet, 113 30, Stockholm, Sweden.
- Center of Psychiatry Research, Stockholm County Council, 113 64, Stockholm, Sweden.
- Department of Psychology, Uppsala University, 751 42, Uppsala, Sweden.
- Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study (SCAS), Uppsala, 752 38, Sweden.
| |
Collapse
|
10
|
Can auditory warning signals normalize eye movements in children with ADHD? Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry 2020; 29:1635-1644. [PMID: 32008169 PMCID: PMC7641930 DOI: 10.1007/s00787-020-01484-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/04/2019] [Accepted: 01/27/2020] [Indexed: 12/25/2022]
Abstract
Attenuated baseline arousal has been hypothesized to underlie symptoms of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). A behavioral signature of reduced baseline arousal is an increased beneficiary effect of warning signals in reaction tasks. This paradoxical effect is believed to be caused by a temporary increase in arousal induced by warning signals. In a preregistered study, we tested the hypothesis that children with high levels of ADHD symptoms would be hyperresponsive to warning signals in a well-established visual attention task (the gap/overlap paradigm). Previous studies using this task have found slower and more variable saccadic reaction times in children with ADHD compared to typically developing children, suggesting that these eye movement metrics are candidate biomarkers. We examined 71 children, of which 1/3 had a diagnosis of ADHD, using both dimensional analyses and group comparisons. Previously reported findings of reduced saccadic latency and increased latency variability were replicated. Importantly, saccadic latency was normalized by auditory warning signals. Analyses of pupil dilation, a physiological index of arousal and locus coeruleus-noradrenergic activity, confirmed that warning signals led to enhanced arousal. Our findings are novel and contribute to our understanding of arousal and attention in ADHD and have implications for treatment and interventions.
Collapse
|
11
|
Bochet A, Franchini M, Kojovic N, Glaser B, Schaer M. Emotional vs. Neutral Face Exploration and Habituation: An Eye-Tracking Study of Preschoolers With Autism Spectrum Disorders. Front Psychiatry 2020; 11:568997. [PMID: 33519540 PMCID: PMC7838366 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2020.568997] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/02/2020] [Accepted: 11/27/2020] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Diminished orienting to social stimuli, and particularly to faces, is a core feature of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). Impaired face processing has been linked to atypical attention processes that trigger a cascade of pathological development contributing to impaired social communication. The aim of the present study is to explore the processing of emotional and neutral faces using an eye-tracking paradigm (the emotional faces task) with a group of 24 children with ASD aged 6 and under and a group of 22 age-matched typically developing (TD) children. We also measure habituation to faces in both groups based on the presentation of repeated facial expressions. Specifically, the task consists of 32 pairs of faces, a neutral face and an emotional face from the same identity, shown side by side on the screen. We observe differential exploration of emotional faces in preschoolers with ASD compared with TD. Participants with ASD make fewer fixations to emotional faces than their TD peers, and the duration of their first fixation on emotional faces is equivalent to their first fixation on neutral faces. These results suggest that emotional faces may be less interesting for children with ASD. We also observe a habituation process to neutral faces in both children with ASD and TD, who looked less at neutral faces during the last quarter of the task compared with the first quarter. By contrast, TD children show increased interest in emotional faces throughout the task, looking slightly more at emotional faces during the last quarter of the task than during the first quarter. Children with ASD demonstrate neither habituation nor increased interest in the changing emotional expressions over the course of the task, looking at the stimuli for equivalent time throughout the task. A lack of increased interest in emotional faces may suggest a lack of sensitivity to changes in expression in young children with ASD.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Aurélie Bochet
- Psychiatry Department, Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.,Fondation Pôle Autisme, Geneva, Switzerland
| | | | - Nada Kojovic
- Psychiatry Department, Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Bronwyn Glaser
- Psychiatry Department, Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Marie Schaer
- Psychiatry Department, Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.,Fondation Pôle Autisme, Geneva, Switzerland
| |
Collapse
|
12
|
Hendry A, Johnson MH, Holmboe K. Early Development of Visual Attention: Change, Stability, and Longitudinal Associations. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2019. [DOI: 10.1146/annurev-devpsych-121318-085114] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
Visual attention is a basic mechanism of information gathering and environment selection and consequently plays a fundamental role in influencing developmental trajectories. Here, we highlight evidence for predictive associations from early visual attention to emotion regulation, executive function, language and broader cognitive ability, mathematics and literacy skills, and neurodevelopmental conditions. Development of visual attention is also multifaceted and nonlinear. In daily life, core functions such as orienting, selective filtering, and processing of visual inputs are intertwined and influenced by many other cognitive components. Furthermore, the demands of an attention task vary according to the experience, motivation, and cognitive and physical constraints of participants, while the mechanisms underlying performance may change with development. Thus, markers of attention may need to be interpreted differently across development and between populations. We summarize research that has combined multiple measurements and techniques to further our understanding of visual attention development and highlight possibilities for the future.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Alexandra Hendry
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX2 6GG, United Kingdom;,
| | - Mark H. Johnson
- Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EB, United Kingdom
| | - Karla Holmboe
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX2 6GG, United Kingdom;,
| |
Collapse
|
13
|
Högström J, Nordh M, Larson Lindal M, Taylor E, Serlachius E, Lundin Kleberg J. Visual attention to emotional faces in adolescents with social anxiety disorder receiving cognitive behavioral therapy. PLoS One 2019; 14:e0225603. [PMID: 31756240 PMCID: PMC6874383 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0225603] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/28/2019] [Accepted: 11/07/2019] [Indexed: 01/04/2023] Open
Abstract
Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is a psychiatric condition that often onsets in childhood. Cognitive models underline the role of attention in the maintenance of SAD, but studies on youth populations are few, particularly those using eye tracking to measure attention. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for SAD includes interventions targeting attention, like exposure to eye contact, but the link between CBT and attention bias is largely unexplored. This study investigated attention bias in youth with SAD and the association with outcome from CBT. Latency to attend to pictures of faces with different emotions (vigilance) and latency to disengage from social stimuli (avoidance) was examined in N = 25 adolescents (aged 13–17) with SAD in relation to treatment outcome. Vigilance was operationalized as the time it took to relocate the gaze from a central position to a peripherally appearing social stimulus. The latency to disengage from a centrally located social stimulus, when a non-social stimulus appeared in the periphery, was used as a proxy for avoidance. Attention characteristics in the SAD group were compared to non-anxious (NA) controls (N = 22). Visual attention was measured using eye tracking. Participants in both the SAD and NA groups were vigilant towards angry faces, compared to neutral and happy faces. Similarly, both groups disengaged attention faster from angry faces. Adolescents with SAD who disengaged faster from social stimuli had less social anxiety after CBT. The results indicate that anxious youth display a vigilant-avoidant attention pattern to threat. However, partly inconsistent with previous research, the same pattern was observed in the NA group.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Jens Högström
- Centre for Psychiatry Research, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, & Stockholm Health Care Services, Stockholm County Council, CAP Research Center, Gävlegatan, Stockholm, Sweden
- * E-mail:
| | - Martina Nordh
- Centre for Psychiatry Research, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, & Stockholm Health Care Services, Stockholm County Council, CAP Research Center, Gävlegatan, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Miriam Larson Lindal
- Division of Psychology, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Ebba Taylor
- Division of Psychology, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Eva Serlachius
- Centre for Psychiatry Research, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, & Stockholm Health Care Services, Stockholm County Council, CAP Research Center, Gävlegatan, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Johan Lundin Kleberg
- Centre for Psychiatry Research, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, & Stockholm Health Care Services, Stockholm County Council, CAP Research Center, Gävlegatan, Stockholm, Sweden
- Uppsala Child and Baby Lab, Department of Psychology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
| |
Collapse
|
14
|
Thorup E, Nyström P, Gredebäck G, Bölte S, Falck-Ytter T. Reduced Alternating Gaze During Social Interaction in Infancy is Associated with Elevated Symptoms of Autism in Toddlerhood. JOURNAL OF ABNORMAL CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 2019. [PMID: 29527625 PMCID: PMC6133004 DOI: 10.1007/s10802-017-0388-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/13/2023]
Abstract
In typical development, infants often alternate their gaze between their interaction partners and interesting stimuli, increasing the probability of joint attention toward surrounding objects and creating opportunities for communication and learning. Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have been found to engage less in behaviors that can initiate joint attention compared to typically developing children, but the role of such atypicalities in the development of ASD during infancy is not fully understood. Here, using eye tracking technology in a live setting, we show that 10-month-olds at high familial risk for ASD engage less in alternating gaze during interaction with an adult compared to low risk infants. These differences could not be explained by low general social preference or slow visual disengagement, as the groups performed similarly in these respects. We also found that less alternating gaze at 10 months was associated with more social ASD symptoms and less showing and pointing at 18 months. These relations were similar in both the high risk and the low risk groups, and remained when controlling for general social preference and disengagement latencies. This study shows that atypicalities in alternating gaze in infants at high risk for ASD emerge already during the first 10 months of life - a finding with theoretical as well as potential practical implications.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Emilia Thorup
- Uppsala Child and Baby Lab, Department of Psychology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.
| | - Pär Nyström
- Uppsala Child and Baby Lab, Department of Psychology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Gustaf Gredebäck
- Uppsala Child and Baby Lab, Department of Psychology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Sven Bölte
- Karolinska Institutet Center of Neurodevelopmental Disorders (KIND), Pediatric Neuropsychiatry Unit, Department of Women's & Children's Health, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.,BUP Stockholm, Center for Psychiatry Research, Stockholm County Council, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Terje Falck-Ytter
- Uppsala Child and Baby Lab, Department of Psychology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.,Karolinska Institutet Center of Neurodevelopmental Disorders (KIND), Pediatric Neuropsychiatry Unit, Department of Women's & Children's Health, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
| | | |
Collapse
|
15
|
Martínez A, Tobe R, Dias EC, Ardekani BA, Veenstra-Vanderweele J, Patel G, Breland M, Lieval A, Silipo G, Javitt DC. Differential Patterns of Visual Sensory Alteration Underlying Face Emotion Recognition Impairment and Motion Perception Deficits in Schizophrenia and Autism Spectrum Disorder. Biol Psychiatry 2019; 86:557-567. [PMID: 31301757 PMCID: PMC7197738 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2019.05.016] [Citation(s) in RCA: 42] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/09/2019] [Revised: 05/16/2019] [Accepted: 05/20/2019] [Indexed: 12/28/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Impaired face emotion recognition (FER) and abnormal motion processing are core features in schizophrenia (SZ) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) that have been linked to atypical activity within the visual cortex. Despite overlaps, only a few studies have directly explored convergent versus divergent neural mechanisms of altered visual processing in ASD and SZ. We employed a multimodal imaging approach to evaluate FER and motion perception in relation to functioning of subcortical and cortical visual regions. METHODS Subjects were 20 high-functioning adults with ASD, 19 patients with SZ, and 17 control participants. Behavioral measures of coherent motion sensitivity and FER along with electrophysiological and functional magnetic resonance imaging measures of visual pattern and motion processing were obtained. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to assess the relationship between corticocortical and thalamocortical connectivity and atypical visual processing. RESULTS SZ and ASD participants had intercorrelated deficits in FER and motion sensitivity. In both groups, reduced motion sensitivity was associated with reduced functional magnetic resonance imaging activation in the occipitotemporal cortex and lower delta-band electroencephalogram power. In ASD, FER deficits correlated with hyperactivation of dorsal stream regions and increased evoked theta power. Activation of the pulvinar correlated with abnormal alpha-band modulation in SZ and ASD with under- and overmodulation, respectively, predicting increased clinical symptoms in both groups. CONCLUSIONS SZ and ASD participants showed equivalent deficits in FER and motion sensitivity but markedly different profiles of physiological dysfunction. The specific pattern of deficits observed in each group may help guide development of treatments designed to downregulate versus upregulate visual processing within the respective clinical groups.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Antígona Martínez
- Schizophrenia Research Division, Nathan S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, Orangeburg, New York; Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, New York.
| | - Russell Tobe
- Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, Orangeburg, NY, USA
| | - Elisa C. Dias
- Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, Orangeburg, NY, USA
| | - Babak A. Ardekani
- Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, Orangeburg, NY, USA
| | | | - Gaurav Patel
- Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY
| | - Melissa Breland
- Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, Orangeburg, NY, USA
| | - Alexis Lieval
- Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, Orangeburg, NY, USA
| | - Gail Silipo
- Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, Orangeburg, NY, USA
| | - Daniel C. Javitt
- Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, Orangeburg, NY, USA,Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY
| |
Collapse
|
16
|
Abstract
The influence of arousal on visual attention was examined in 6.5-month-old infants (N = 42) in the context of a visual search task. Phasic increases in arousal were induced with brief sounds and measured with pupil dilation. Evidence was found for an inverted U-shaped relation between pupil dilation amplitude and visual orienting, with highest likelihood of a target fixation at intermediate levels of arousal. Effects were similar for facial stimuli and simple objects. Together, these results contribute to our understanding of the relation between arousal and attention in infancy. The study also demonstrates that infants have a bias to orient to human eyes, even when presented in isolation.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Terje Falck‐Ytter
- Uppsala University
- Karolinska Institutet
- Swedish Collegium for Advanced Studies (SCAS)
| |
Collapse
|
17
|
Keehn B, Kadlaskar G, McNally Keehn R, Francis AL. Auditory Attentional Disengagement in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. J Autism Dev Disord 2019; 49:3999-4008. [PMID: 31201579 DOI: 10.1007/s10803-019-04111-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/26/2022]
Abstract
Despite early differences in orienting to sounds, no study to date has investigated whether children with ASD demonstrate impairments in attentional disengagement in the auditory modality. Twenty-one 9-15-year-old children with ASD and 20 age- and IQ-matched TD children were presented with an auditory gap-overlap paradigm. Evidence of impaired disengagement in ASD was mixed. Differences in saccadic reaction time for overlap and gap conditions did not differ between groups. However, children with ASD did show increased no-shift trials in the overlap condition, as well as reduced disengagement efficiency compared to their TD peers. These results provide further support for disengagement impairments in ASD, and suggest that these deficits include disengaging from and shifting to unimodal auditory information.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Brandon Keehn
- Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, Purdue University, 715 Clinic Drive, Lyles-Porter Hall, West Lafayette, IN, 47907, USA. .,Department of Psychological Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA.
| | - Girija Kadlaskar
- Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, Purdue University, 715 Clinic Drive, Lyles-Porter Hall, West Lafayette, IN, 47907, USA
| | - Rebecca McNally Keehn
- Department of Pediatrics, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, USA
| | - Alexander L Francis
- Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, Purdue University, 715 Clinic Drive, Lyles-Porter Hall, West Lafayette, IN, 47907, USA
| |
Collapse
|
18
|
Nakagawa A, Sukigara M. Early development of attentional disengagement and phasic alertness. Infant Behav Dev 2019; 55:38-45. [PMID: 30856558 DOI: 10.1016/j.infbeh.2019.02.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/13/2018] [Revised: 02/22/2019] [Accepted: 02/22/2019] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Attention development is a critical foundation for cognitive abilities. This study examines the relationship between phasic aspects of alertness and disengagement in infants, using the overlap paradigm. Research shows that visual disengagement in overlap condition is modulated by auditory cues in 6-year-olds. Our participants were aged 6 months (N = 20), 12 months (N = 27), and 24 months (N = 14). Phasic alertness during overlap and no-overlap tasks was manipulated using a spatially nondirective warning signal shortly before onset of the peripheral target. Responses in overlap condition were slower and fewer than in no-overlap condition. The signal showed a tendency to reduce latencies in both overlap and no-overlap conditions. While our hypothesis that the warning signal might be more effective in younger infants was not supported, we confirmed the association reported in previous studies between temperamental soothability and disengagement latencies in infancy.
Collapse
|
19
|
Bast N, Poustka L, Freitag CM. The locus coeruleus-norepinephrine system as pacemaker of attention - a developmental mechanism of derailed attentional function in autism spectrum disorder. Eur J Neurosci 2018; 47:115-125. [DOI: 10.1111/ejn.13795] [Citation(s) in RCA: 51] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/21/2016] [Revised: 12/04/2017] [Accepted: 12/07/2017] [Indexed: 12/31/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Nico Bast
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy; University Hospital; Goethe University Frankfurt am Main; Deutschordenstraße 50 60528 Frankfurt am Main Germany
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy; Medical Faculty Mannheim; Central Institute of Mental Health; Heidelberg University; Heidelberg Germany
| | - Luise Poustka
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy; Medical Faculty Mannheim; Central Institute of Mental Health; Heidelberg University; Heidelberg Germany
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry/Psychotherapy; University Medical Center Göttingen; Medical University of Göttingen; Göttingen Germany
| | - Christine M. Freitag
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy; University Hospital; Goethe University Frankfurt am Main; Deutschordenstraße 50 60528 Frankfurt am Main Germany
| |
Collapse
|