How children with specific language impairment view social situations: an eye tracking study

Audiovisual speech perception deficits in unaffected siblings of children with developmental language disorder

Siblings of children with developmental language disorder (DLD) often have weaker language skills compared to peers with typical development (TD). However, whether their language-relevant audiovisual skills are also atypical is unknown. Study 1 examined whether siblings use information about a talker's mouth shape during phonemic processing as children with TD do. Study 2 examined siblings' ability to match auditory words with observed word articulations. Only children with TD showed a significant MMN to audiovisual phonemic violations, suggesting that, just like in children with DLD, lip shape does not modulate phonemic processing in siblings. Children with DLD and siblings were also less accurate than children with TD at detecting audiovisual word mismatches. The N400 amplitude in children with TD was significantly larger than in children with DLD and marginally larger than in siblings. Phonemic and lexical representations in siblings lack audiovisual details, which may contribute to poor language development.

Eye-Tracking Methodology to Detect Differences in Attention to Faces Between Developmental Language Disorder and Autism

PURPOSE

Developmental language disorder (DLD) and autism sometimes appear as overlapping conditions in behavioral tests. There is much literature on the visual scanning pattern (VSP) of faces in autistic children, but this is scarce regarding those with DLD. The purpose of this study was to compare the VSP of faces in young children with DLD, those with autism, and typically developing peers, assessing the effect of three variables.

METHOD

Two eye-tracking experiments were designed to assess the effect of the emotion and the poser's gender (Experiment 1) and the poser's age (Experiment 2) on the VSP of participants (Experiment 1: N = 59, age range: 32-74 months; Experiment 2: N = 58, age range: 32-74 months). We operationalized the VSP in terms of attentional orientation, visual preference, and depth of processing of each sort of face. We developed two paired preference tasks in which pairs of images of faces showing different emotions were displayed simultaneously to compete for children's attention.

RESULTS

Data analysis revealed two VSP markers common to both disorders: (a) superficial processing of faces and (b) late orientation to angry and child faces. Moreover, one specific marker for each condition was also found: typical preference for child faces in children with DLD versus diminished preference for them in autistic children.

CONCLUSIONS

Considering the similarities found between children with DLD and those with autism, difficulties of children with DLD in attention to faces have been systematically underestimated. Thus, more effort must be made to identify and respond to the needs of this population. Clinical practice may benefit from the potential of eye-tracking methodology and the analysis of the VSP to assess attention to faces in both conditions. This would also contribute to the improvement of early differential diagnosis in the long run.

Gaze Following as an Early Diagnostic Marker of Autism in a New Word Learning Task in Toddlers

The aim was to test the use of eye-tracking methodology for the early detection of ASD in a task of association between unfamiliar objects and pseudowords. Significant differences were found between ASD (n = 57) and TD (n = 57) Spanish speaking toddlers in the number and time of fixation. The TD children showed more and longer fixations on eyes and mouth while the ASD children attended almost exclusively to objects, making it difficult to integrate lexical and phonological information. Moreover, the TD toddlers looked at the mouth when the pseudoword was produced while the ASD toddlers did not. Gaze fixation on eyes and mouth during word learning recorded by eye-tracking may be used as a biomarker for the early diagnosis of ASD.

Expanding understanding of adolescent neural sensitivity to peers: Using social information processing theory to generate new lines of research

Adolescence is a period of normative heightened sensitivity to peer influence. Individual differences in susceptibility to peers is related to individual differences in neural sensitivity, particularly in brain regions that support an increasingly greater orientation toward peers. Despite these empirically-established patterns, the more specific psychosocial and socio-cognitive factors associated with individual differences in neural sensitivity to peer influence are just beginning to gain research attention. Specific features of the factors that contribute to how adolescents process social information can inform understanding of the psychological and neurobiological processes involved in what renders adolescents to be more or less susceptible to peer influences. In this paper, we (1) review the literature about peer, family, and broader contextual influences on sensitivity to peers' positive and negative behaviors, (2) outline components of social information processing theories, and (3) discuss features of these models from the perspectives and social cognitive development and social neuroscience. We identify gaps in the current literature that need to be addressed in order to gain a more comprehensive view of adolescent neural sensitivity to peer influence. We conclude by suggesting how future neuroimaging studies can adopt components of this social information processing model to generate new lines of research.

Identifying interindividual variability of social perception and associated brain anatomical correlations in children with autism spectrum disorder using eye-tracking and diffusion tensor imaging MRI (DTI-MRI)

Even though deficits in social cognition constitute a core characteristic of autism spectrum disorders, a large heterogeneity exists regarding individual social performances and its neural basis remains poorly investigated. Here, we used eye-tracking to objectively measure interindividual variability in social perception and its correlation with white matter microstructure, measured with diffusion tensor imaging MRI, in 25 children with autism spectrum disorder (8.5 ± 3.8 years). Beyond confirming deficits in social perception in participants with autism spectrum disorder compared 24 typically developing controls (10.5 ± 2.9 years), results revealed a large interindividual variability of such behavior among individuals with autism spectrum disorder. Whole-brain analysis showed in both autism spectrum disorder and typically developing groups a positive correlation between number of fixations to the eyes and fractional anisotropy values mainly in right and left superior longitudinal tracts. In children with autism spectrum disorder a correlation was also observed in right and left inferior longitudinal tracts. Importantly, a significant interaction between group and number of fixations to the eyes was observed within the anterior portion of the right inferior longitudinal fasciculus, mainly in the right anterior temporal region. This additional correlation in a supplementary region suggests the existence of a compensatory brain mechanism, which may support enhanced performance in social perception among children with autism spectrum disorder.

Impacts of perinatal dioxin exposure on gaze behavior in 2-year-old children in the largest dioxin-contaminated area in Vietnam

Fifty-five children aged 2 years from a birth cohort in the largest dioxin-contaminated area in Bien Hoa city, Vietnam participated in this survey to examine gaze behavior. Exposure levels were indicated by 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dibenzodioxin (TCDD) and toxic equivalent of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxin and polychlorinated dibenzofuran (TEQ-PCDD/Fs) levels in maternal breast milk. The percentage of the total fixation duration on the face (% Face), mouth (% Mouth), and eye areas (% Eyes) when viewing silent and conversation scenes was used as gaze behavior indices. When they reached 3-year-old, autistic behavior was assessed using the Autism Spectrum Rating Scale (ASRS). A general linear model adjusted for confounding factors was used to compare gaze indices and ASRS scores between high and low dioxin exposure groups. Effects of perinatal dioxin exposure on gaze behavior were found only when viewing conversation scenes indicated by lower % Face for boys in high TCDD exposure group and lower % Eyes for girls in high TEQ-PCDD/Fs group. Increased autistic traits showed by higher ASRS scores at 3-year-old were found in both gender in the high TCDD exposure group. These findings indicate that perinatal TCDD and TEQ-PCDD/Fs exposure may reduce gaze behavior in 2-year-old children, predicting increased autistic traits at 3-year-old.

Social Cognition in Adolescents with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD): Evidence from the Social Attribution Task

Social cognition impairments may explain social, emotional and behavioural difficulties (SEBD) in individuals with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD). In a novel approach, the Social Attribution Task (SAT) was used to examine this association. SAT narratives were coded from 53 participants [n = 26 DLD; n = 27 typical language development (TLD)] matched on age (Mage = 13;6) and gender (35.9% female). Parents reported SEBD. Adolescents with DLD performed worse than their TLD peers on the majority of SAT indices and had higher peer (d = 1.09) and emotional problems (d = .75). There was no association between social cognition abilities and SEBD. These exploratory findings suggest social cognition should be further examined in this population.

Active Viewing Facilitates Gaze to the Eye Region in Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Previous studies have shown reduced attention to the eyes in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, most eye-tracking evidence regarding this impairment has been derived from passive viewing tasks. Here, we compared the passive viewing of faces with an active task involving face identification with morphing faces. While typical controls prioritized the eyes over other facial features regardless of viewing condition, autistic children exhibited reduced eye-looking in passive viewing, but displayed increased attention allocation to the eyes when instructed to identify faces. The proportional eye-looking in ASD during facial recognition was negatively related to the autism symptoms severity. These findings provide evidence regarding the specific situations in which diminished eye-looking may rise in young ASD children.

Understanding the role of eye movement consistency in face recognition and autism through integrating deep neural networks and hidden Markov models

Greater eyes-focused eye movement pattern during face recognition is associated with better performance in adults but not in children. We test the hypothesis that higher eye movement consistency across trials, instead of a greater eyes-focused pattern, predicts better performance in children since it reflects capacity in developing visual routines. We first simulated visual routine development through combining deep neural network and hidden Markov model that jointly learn perceptual representations and eye movement strategies for face recognition. The model accounted for the advantage of eyes-focused pattern in adults, and predicted that in children (partially trained models) consistency but not pattern of eye movements predicted recognition performance. This result was then verified with data from typically developing children. In addition, lower eye movement consistency in children was associated with autism diagnosis, particularly autistic traits in social skills. Thus, children's face recognition involves visual routine development through social exposure, indexed by eye movement consistency.

Psychometric Characteristics of the Visual Communication and Sign Language Checklist

Since its publication in 2013, the Visual Communication and Sign Language (VCSL) Checklist has been widely utilized to assess the development of early American Sign Language skills of deaf children from birth to age 5. However, little research has been published using the results of VCSL assessments. Notably, no psychometric analyses have been conducted to verify the validity of the VCSL in a population whose characteristics are different from those of the small sample of native signing children from whom the published norms were created. The current paper, using data from the online version of the VCSL (VCSL:O), addresses this shortcoming. Ratings of the 114 VCSL items from 562 evaluations were analyzed using a partial-credit Rasch model. Results indicate that the underlying skill across the age range comprises an adequate single dimension. Within the items' age groupings, however, the dimensionality is not so clear. Item ordering, as well as item fit, is explored in detail. In addition, the paper reports the benefits of using the resulting Rasch scale scores, which, unlike the published scoring strategy that focuses on basal and ceiling performance, makes use of the ratings of partial credit, or emerging, skills. Strategies for revising the VCSL are recommended.

Children with ASD establish joint attention during free-flowing toy play without face looks

Children's ability to share attention with another person (i.e., achieve joint attention) is critical for learning about their environments in general^1-3 and supporting language and object word learning in particular.^1,4-14 While joint attention (JA) as it pertains to autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is often more narrowly operationalized as arising from eye gaze or explicit pointing cues alone,^2,5,10,15-19 recent evidence demonstrates that JA in natural environments can be achieved more broadly through multiple other pathways beyond gaze and gestures.^2,4,20-31 Here, we use dual head-mounted eye tracking to examine pathways into and characteristics of JA episodes during free-flowing parent-child toy play, comparing children with ASD to typically developing (TD) children. Moments of JA were defined objectively as both the child's and parent's gaze directed to the same object at the same time. Consistent with previous work in TD children,^{4,21,25,30-32} we found that both TD and ASD children rarely look at their parent's face in this unstructured free play context. Nevertheless, both groups achieved similarly high rates of JA that far exceeded chance, suggesting the use of alternative pathways into JA. We characterize these alternate pathways, find they occur at similar levels across both groups, and achieve similar ends: namely, for both groups, targets of JA are named more frequently by parents in those moments than non-jointly attended objects. These findings broaden the conceptualization of JA abilities and impairment in ASD and raise questions regarding the mechanistic role of the face-gaze-mediated JA pathway in ASD.

Eye-Tracking Studies in Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Eye-tracking studies have shown potential in effectively discriminating between autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and non-ASD groups. The main objective of the present study was to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis of eye-tracking studies in adults with ASD. A total of 22 studies were included for meta-analysis. Eyes and Non-Social regions proved better for discriminating between ASD and non-ASD adults, while fixation duration seems to be the outcome to choose. Active engaged tasks seem to reduce differences between ASD and non-ASD adults, regardless of the emotional content of the stimuli/task. Proportional fixation duration on eyes and non-social areas in non-active tasks (e.g. free viewing) seems to be the best eye-tracking design for increasing the sensitivity and specificity in ASD adults.

Language development, reading and word learning in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD): a review on eye tracking studies

Objectives: The purpose of this article is to review research that has been conducted over the past five years on language development, reading skills and word learning with the use of the eye tracking machine as regards the population with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in comparison to typically developed population. Materials and methods: A combination of relevant terms from Google Scholar, Research Gate and PsychINFO databases was used and as a result 24 studies emerged. The total number of studies that met the inclusion criteria was 21. Results: Studies focusing on the language development of people with ASD have presented significant findings regarding vocabulary processing and the preferential focus on specific stimuli (images, audio) over a wide range of ages that in some cases have not been investigated until then. Furthermore, studies on reading have found that adults with ASD showed a strong preference for images and symbols over texts, longer reading time and performances similar to the typical population in vocabulary processing. Studies on word learning demonstrated that adults with ASD are able to rely on gaze cues in order to learn a new word and they have the ability to use syntactic bootstrapping. For preschool and early school-aged children with ASD the results showed that they are capable of cross-situational learning. Conclusions: This review provides information on the effectiveness of the eye tracking method as a tool that can contribute to the identification of deficits in language processing on the part of individuals with ASD from early childhood to adulthood, and more specifically as regards the domains of language development, reading and word learning.

Mechanisms by which Early Eye Gaze to the Mouth During Multisensory Speech Influences Expressive Communication Development in Infant Siblings of Children with and without Autism

Looking to the mouth of a talker early in life predicts expressive communication. We hypothesized that looking at a talker's mouth may signal that infants are ready for increased supported joint engagement and that it subsequently facilitates prelinguistic vocal development and translates to broader gains in expressive communication. We tested this hypothesis in 50 infants aged 6-18 months with heightened and general population-level likelihood of autism diagnosis (Sibs-autism and Sibs-NA; respectively). We measured infants' gaze to a speaker's face using an eye tracking task, supported joint engagement during parent-child free play sessions, vocal complexity during a communication sample, and broader expressive communication. Looking at the mouth was indirectly associated with expressive communication via increased higher-order supported joint engagement and vocal complexity. This indirect effect did not vary according to sibling status. This study provides preliminary insights into the mechanisms by which looking at the mouth may influence expressive communication development.

Comparison of Visual Fixation Trajectories in Toddlers with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Typical Development: A Markov Chain Model

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental condition in which visual attention and visual search strategies are altered. Eye-tracking paradigms have been used to detect these changes. In our study, 18 toddlers with ASD and 18 toddlers with typical development (TD; age range 12-36 months) underwent an eye-tracking paradigm where a face was shown together with a series of objects. Eye gaze was coded according to three areas of interest (AOIs) indicating where the toddlers' gaze was directed: 'Face', 'Object', and 'No-stimulus fixation'. The fixation sequence for the ASD and TD groups was modelled with a Markov chain model, obtaining transition probabilities between AOIs. Our results indicate that the transition between AOIs could differentiate between toddlers with ASD or TD, highlighting different visual exploration patterns between the groups. The sequence of exploration is strictly conditioned based on previous fixations, among which 'No-stimulus fixation' has a critical role in differentiating the two groups. Furthermore, our analyses underline difficulties of individuals with ASD to engage in stimulus exploration. These results could improve clinical and interventional practice by considering this dimension among the evaluation process.

Facial speech processing in children with and without dyslexia

What role does the presence of facial speech play for children with dyslexia? Current literature proposes two distinctive claims. One claim states that children with dyslexia make less use of visual information from the mouth during speech processing due to a deficit in recruitment of audiovisual areas. An opposing claim suggests that children with dyslexia are in fact reliant on such information in order to compensate for auditory/phonological impairments. The current paper aims at directly testing these contrasting hypotheses (here referred to as "mouth insensitivity" versus "mouth reliance") in school-age children with and without dyslexia, matched on age and listening comprehension. Using eye tracking, in Study 1, we examined how children look at the mouth across conditions varying in speech processing demands. The results did not indicate significant group differences in looking at the mouth. However, correlation analyses suggest potentially important distinctions within the dyslexia group: those children with dyslexia who are better readers attended more to the mouth while presented with a person's face in a phonologically demanding condition. In Study 2, we examined whether the presence of facial speech cues is functionally beneficial when a child is encoding written words. The results indicated lack of overall group differences on the task, although those with less severe reading problems in the dyslexia group were more accurate when reading words that were presented with articulatory facial speech cues. Collectively, our results suggest that children with dyslexia differ in their "mouth reliance" versus "mouth insensitivity," a profile that seems to be related to the severity of their reading problems.

Slowness Therapy for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Blind Longitudinal Randomized Controlled Study

The world often goes too fast for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to process. We tested the therapeutic effectiveness of input slowing in children with ASD. Over 12 months, 12 children with ASD had weekly speech therapy sessions where stimuli were slowly played on a PC, while 11 age- and level-matched children with ASD had speech therapy using real-time stimuli. At the beginning and end of the study, all participants were assessed on communication, imitation, facial emotion recognition, behavior, and face exploration. Whereas communication and facial emotion recognition improved in both groups, imitation increased, inappropriate behaviors decreased, and time spent fixating mouth and eyes increased solely in the group using slowness. Slowness therapy seems very promising for ASD children.

Visual Traces of Language Acquisition in Toddlers with Autism Spectrum Disorder During the Second Year of Life

Infants show shifting patterns of visual engagement to faces over the first years of life. To explore the adaptive implications of this engagement, we collected eye-tracking measures on cross-sectional samples of 10-25-month-old typically developing toddlers (TD;N = 28) and those with autism spectrum disorder (ASD;N = 54). Concurrent language assessments were conducted and relationships between visual engagement and expressive and receptive language were analyzed between groups, and within ASD subgroups. TD and ASD toddlers exhibited greater mouth- than eye-looking, with TD exhibiting higher levels of mouth-looking than ASD. Mouth-looking was positively associated with expressive language in TD toddlers, and in ASD toddlers who had acquired first words. Mouth-looking was unrelated to expressive language in ASD toddlers who had not yet acquired first words.

An Innovation-Driven Approach to Specific Language Impairment Diagnosis

Background

Specific language impairment (SLI) diagnosis is inconvenient due to manual procedures and hardware cost. Computer-aided SLI diagnosis has been proposed to counter these inconveniences. This study focuses on evaluating the feasibility of computer systems used to diagnose SLI.

Methods

The accuracy of Webgazer.js for software-based gaze tracking is tested under different lighting conditions. Predefined time delays of a prototype diagnosis task automation script are contrasted against with manual delays based on human time estimation to understand how automation influences diagnosis accuracy. SLI diagnosis binary classifier was built and tested based on randomised parameters. The obtained results were cross-compared to Singlims_ES.exe for equality.

Results

Webgazer.js achieved an average accuracy of 88.755% under global lighting conditions, 61.379% under low lighting conditions and 52.7% under face-focused lighting conditions. The diagnosis task automation script found to execute with actual time delays with a deviation percentage no more than 0.04%, while manually executing time delays based on human time estimation resulted in a deviation percentage of not more than 3.37%. One-tailed test probability value produced by both the newly built classifier and Singlims_ES were observed to be similar up to three decimal places.

Conclusion

The results obtained should serve as a foundation for further evaluation of computer tools to help speech language pathologists diagnose SLI.

Investigating Gaze Behaviour of Children Diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorders in a Classroom Setting

A defining feature of ASD is atypical gaze behaviour, however, eye-tracking studies in ‘real-world’ settings are limited, and the possibility of improving gaze behaviour for ASD children is largely unexplored. This study investigated gaze behaviour of ASD and typically developing (TD) children in their classroom setting. Eye-tracking technology was used to develop and pilot an operant training tool to positively reinforce typical gaze behaviour towards faces. Visual and statistical analyses of eye-tracking data revealed different gaze behaviour patterns during live interactions for ASD and TD children depending on the interaction type. All children responded to operant training with longer looking times observed on face stimuli post training. The promising application of operant gaze training in ecologically valid settings is discussed.

Effects of perinatal dioxin exposure on neonatal electroencephalography (EEG) activity of the quiet sleep stage in the most contaminated area from Agent Orange in Vietnam

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the effects of perinatal dioxin exposure indicated by dioxins in breast milk on neonatal electroencephalography (EEG) power in the quiet sleep stage, and associations with neurodevelopmental outcomes at 2 years of age.

STUDY DESIGN

Fifty-one mother-newborn pairs were enrolled for neonatal EEG analysis in the quiet sleep stage from a birth cohort recruited at a prefecture hospital in Bien Hoa city, Vietnam. Relative EEG power in intra-burst-intervals and high-voltage-bursts in the trace alternant pattern were computed from EEG data during the quiet sleep stage. Forty-three mother-child pairs participated in a 2-year follow-up survey to examine neurodevelopment using the Bayley-III scale and gaze behavior exhibited by fixation duration on the face of a child talking in videos. The general linear model and regression linear model were used for data analysis after adjusting for confounding factors.

RESULTS

Perinatal dioxin exposure, particularly 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) exposure, influenced relative EEG power values mainly in the intra-burst-interval part of the trace alternant pattern in the quiet sleep stage. In intra-burst-intervals, decreased frontal delta power and increased frontal and parietal alpha power values in the left hemisphere and temporal beta power values in the right hemisphere were associated with increased TCDD exposure, with significant dose-response relationships. Almost none of the relative power values in these brain regions were associated with Bayley III scores, but relative delta power values were significantly associated with face fixation duration in left frontal and parietal regions at 2 years of age.

CONCLUSION

Perinatal dioxin exposure influences neuronal activity in the quiet sleep stage, leading to poor communication ability indicated by gaze behavior in early childhood.

Reducing facial dynamics' speed during speech enhances attention to mouth in children with autism spectrum disorder: An eye-tracking study

Facial movements of others during verbal and social interaction are often too rapid to be faced and/or processed in time by numerous children and adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), which could contribute to their face-to-face interaction peculiarities. We wish here to measure the effect of reducing the speed of one's facial dynamics on the visual exploration of the face by children with ASD. Twenty-three children with ASD and 29 typically-developing control children matched for chronological age passively viewed a video of a speaker telling a story at various velocities, i.e., a real-time speed and two slowed-down speeds. The visual scene was divided into four areas of interest (AOI): face, mouth, eyes, and outside the face. With an eye-tracking system, we measured the percentage of total fixation duration per AOI and the number and mean duration of the visual fixations made on each AOI. In children with ASD, the mean duration of visual fixations on the mouth region, which correlated with their verbal level, increased at slowed-down velocity compared with the real-time one, a finding which parallels a result also found in the control children. These findings strengthen the therapeutic potential of slowness for enhancing verbal and language abilities in children with ASD.

Developmental changes in attention to social information from childhood to adolescence in autism spectrum disorders: a comparative study

BACKGROUND

Elucidating developmental changes in the symptoms of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is important to support individuals with ASD. However, no report has clarified the developmental changes in attention to social information for a broad age range. The aim of this study was to investigate the developmental changes in attention to social information from early childhood to adolescence in individuals with ASD and typically developed (TD) children.

METHODS

We recruited children with ASD (n = 83) and TD participants (n = 307) between 2 and 18 years of age. Using the all-in-one-eye-tracking system, Gazefinder, we measured the percentage fixation time allocated to areas of interest (AoIs) depicted in movies (the eyes and mouth in movies of a human face with/without mouth motion, upright and inverted biological motion in movies showing these stimuli simultaneously, people and geometry in preference paradigm movies showing these stimuli simultaneously, and objects with/without finger-pointing in a movie showing a woman pointing toward an object). We conducted a three-way analysis of variance, 2 (diagnosis: ASD and TD) by 2 (sex: male and female) by 3 (age group: 0-5, 6-11, and 12-18 years) and locally weighted the scatterplot smoothing (LOESS) regression curve on each AoI.

RESULTS

In the face stimuli, the percentage fixation time to the eye region for the TD group increased with age, whereas the one for the ASD group did not. In the ASD group, the LOESS curves of the gaze ratios at the eye region increased up to approximately 10 years of age and thereafter tended to decrease. For the percentage fixation time to the people region in the preference paradigm, the ASD group gazed more briefly at people than did the TD group.

LIMITATIONS

It is possible that due to the cross-sectional design, the degree of severity and of social interest might have differed according to the subjects' age.

CONCLUSIONS

There may be qualitative differences in abnormal eye contact in ASD between individuals in early childhood and those older than 10 years.

The role of limited salience of speech in selective attention to faces in toddlers with autism spectrum disorders

BACKGROUND

Impaired attention to faces of interactive partners is a marker for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in early childhood. However, it is unclear whether children with ASD avoid faces or find them less salient and whether the phenomenon is linked with the presence of eye contact or speech.

METHODS

We investigated the impacts of speech (SP) and direct gaze (DG) on attention to faces in 22-month-old toddlers with ASD (n = 50) and typically developing controls (TD, n = 47) using the Selective Social Attention 2.0 (SSA 2.0) task. The task consisted of four conditions where the presence (+) and absence (-) of DG and SP were systematically manipulated. The severity of autism symptoms, and verbal and nonverbal skills were characterized concurrently with eye tracking at 22.4 (SD = 3.2) months and prospectively at 39.8 (SD = 4.3) months.

RESULTS

Toddlers with ASD looked less than TD toddlers at face and mouth regions only when the actress was speaking (direct gaze absence with speech, DG-SP+: d = 0.99, p < .001 for face, d = 0.98, p < .001 for mouth regions; direct gaze present with speech, DG+SP+, d = 1.47, p < .001 for face, d = 1.01, p < .001 for mouth regions). Toddlers with ASD looked less at the eye region only when both gaze and speech cues were present (d = 0.46, p = .03). Salience of the combined DG and SP cues was associated concurrently and prospectively with the severity of autism symptoms, and the association remained significant after controlling for verbal and nonverbal levels.

CONCLUSIONS

The study links poor attention to faces with limited salience of audiovisual speech and provides no support for the face avoidance hypothesis in the early stages of ASD. These results are consequential for research on early discriminant and predictive biomarkers as well as identification of novel treatment targets.

Attenuated relationship between salivary oxytocin levels and attention to social information in adolescents and adults with autism spectrum disorder: a comparative study

BACKGROUND

Previous research studies have assessed the relationship between attention to social information and peripheral (e.g., plasma and salivary) oxytocin (OT) levels in typically developing (TD) children and children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). A relationship between them was observed in TD children, but not in children with ASD. However, this relationship remains unexamined in other age groups. To clarify whether this lack of association is maintained throughout development in individuals with ASD, we aimed to assess the relationship between salivary OT levels and attention to social information in adolescents and adults with and without ASD.

METHODS

We recruited male adolescents and adults with ASD (n = 17) and TD participants (n = 24). Using the all-in-one eye-tracking system Gazefinder, we measured the percentage fixation time allocated to social information. We also measured the salivary OT levels and Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ) of participants. Subsequently, we confirmed group differences and conducted a correlation analysis to investigate the relationships between these three measures.

RESULTS

Salivary OT levels did not show any significant difference between the ASD and TD groups and were negatively correlated with the AQ in the whole-group analysis, but not in within-group analysis. Individuals with ASD had significantly lower percentage fixation times than did TD individuals for eye regions in human faces with/without mouth motion, for upright biological motion, and for people regions in the people and geometry movies. The percentage of fixation for geometric shapes in the people and geometry movies was significantly higher in the ASD than in the TD group. In the TD group, salivary OT levels were positively correlated with percentage fixation times for upright biological motion and people and negatively correlated with inverted biological motion and geometry. However, no significant correlations were found in the ASD group.

CONCLUSIONS

Our exploratory results suggest that salivary OT levels in adolescents and adults with ASD are less indicative of attention to social stimuli than they are in TD adolescents and adults. It is suggested that their association is slightly weaker in adolescents and adults with ASD and that this attenuated relationship appears to be maintained throughout development.

Examining How Types of Object Distractors Distinctly Compete for Facial Attention in Autism Spectrum Disorder Using Eye Tracking

Social motivation theory states that individuals with ASD find social stimuli less rewarding (Chevallier et al. in Trends Cognit Sci 16(4):231-239, 2012). An alternative theory suggests that competition from circumscribed interests (CIs) may better account for diminished social attention (Sasson et al. in Autism Res 1(1):31-42, 2008). This study evaluated both theories in children diagnosed with ASD (n = 16) and a group of TD children (n = 20) using eye tracking and demonstrated that distractor type only impacted the proportion of dwell time on faces in the TD group, but not the ASD group. These results provide support for the social motivation theory because gaze duration for faces among children with ASD was diminished regardless of whether the non-social stimuli presented was a CI or control object.

Immediate effects of coloured overlays on the reading performance of preschool children with an autism spectrum disorder using eye tracking

BACKGROUND

Coloured overlays have often been used to improve reading performance in preschool children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD), however, previous evidence shows conflicts in its application.

AIMS

To investigate the immediate effects of coloured overlays on reading performance using eye tracking in preschool children with ASD and their typical development (TD) counterparts closely matched by chronological age.

METHODS

Forty participants with ASD (n = 20) or TD (n = 20) were recruited by convenience sampling and asked to read aloud numbers randomly arranged on paper. Participants' ocular performance (fixation duration, fixation count, total visit duration), reading speed and number of errors were recorded by eye tracker and digital stopwatch respectively throughout testing with and without coloured overlays.

RESULTS

The findings show that coloured overlays had no significant immediate effect in improving ocular performance and reading speed of children with ASD or TD, although individual improvements were identified in some children with ASD.

CONCLUSIONS

Use of coloured overlays may not be useful to improve reading and ocular performance in children with ASD in one single occasion. The potential effect on reading ability of using coloured overlays repetitively for a longer period needs further investigation.

What Can Eye Movements Tell Us about Subtle Cognitive Processing Differences in Autism?

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is neurodevelopmental condition principally characterised by impairments in social interaction and communication, and repetitive behaviours and interests. This article reviews the eye movement studies designed to investigate the underlying sampling or processing differences that might account for the principal characteristics of autism. Following a brief summary of a previous review chapter by one of the authors of the current paper, a detailed review of eye movement studies investigating various aspects of processing in autism over the last decade will be presented. The literature will be organised into sections covering different cognitive components, including language and social communication and interaction studies. The aim of the review will be to show how eye movement studies provide a very useful on-line processing measure, allowing us to account for observed differences in behavioural data (accuracy and reaction times). The subtle processing differences that eye movement data reveal in both language and social processing have the potential to impact in the everyday communication domain in autism.

Are linguistic and social-pragmatic abilities separable in neurotypical infants and infants later diagnosed with ASD?

Adult humans process communicative interactions by recognizing that information is being communicated through speech (linguistic ability) and simultaneously evaluating how to respond appropriately (social-pragmatic ability). These abilities may originate in infancy. Infants understand how speech communicates in social interactions, helping them learn language and how to interact with others. Infants later diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), who show deficits in social-pragmatic abilities, differ in how they attend to the linguistic and social-pragmatic information in their environment. Despite their interdependence, experimental measures of language and social-pragmatic attention are often studied in isolation in infancy. Thus, the extent to which language and social-pragmatic abilities are related constructs remains unknown. Understanding how related or separable language and social-pragmatic abilities are in infancy may reveal whether these abilities are supported by distinguishable developmental mechanisms. This study uses a single communicative scene to examine whether real-time linguistic and social-pragmatic attention are separable in neurotypical infants and infants later diagnosed with ASD, and whether attending to linguistic and social-pragmatic information separately predicts later language and social-pragmatic abilities 1 year later. For neurotypical 12-month-olds and 12-month-olds later diagnosed with ASD, linguistic attention was not correlated with concurrent social-pragmatic attention. Furthermore, infants' real-time attention to the linguistic and social-pragmatic aspects of the scene at 12 months predicted and distinguished language and social-pragmatic abilities at 24 months. Language and social-pragmatic attention during communication are thus separable in infancy and may follow distinguishable developmental trajectories. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

The Characteristics of Intelligence Profile and Eye Gaze in Facial Emotion Recognition in Mild and Moderate Preschoolers With Autism Spectrum Disorder

Childhood autism spectrum disorder (ASD) can easily be misdiagnosed, due to the nonspecific social and communicational deficits associated with the disorder. The present study attempted to profile the mental development and visual attention toward emotion among preschool children with mild or moderate ASD who were attending mainstream kindergartens. A total of 21 children (17 boys and 4 girls) diagnosed with mild or moderate ASD selected from 5,178 kindergarteners from the Xi'an city were recruited. Another group of 21 typically developing (TD) children who were matched with age, gender, and class served as controls. All children were assessed using the Griffiths Mental Development Scales-Chinese (GDS-C), and their social visual attention was assessed during watching 20 ecologically valid film scenes by using eye tracking technique. The results showed that ASD children had lower mental development scores in the Locomotor, Personal-Social, Language, Performance, and Practical Reasoning subscales than the TD peers. Moreover, deficits in recognizing emotions from facial expressions based on naturalistic scene stimuli with voice were found for ASD children. The deficits were significantly correlated with their ability in social interaction and development quotient in ASD group. ASD children showed atypical eye-gaze pattern when compared to TD children during facial emotion expression task. Children with ASD had reduced visual attention to facial emotion expression, especially for the eye region. The findings confirmed the deficits of ASD children in real life multimodal of emotion recognition, and their atypical eye-gaze pattern for emotion recognition. Parents and teachers of children with mild or moderate ASD should make informed educational decisions according to their level of mental development. In addition, eye tracking technique might clinically help provide evidence diagnosing children with mild or moderate ASD.

Una aproximación al análisis bioético del paradigma de las neurociencias en el estudio del autismo

Resumen Dada las peculiares características del autismo, la diversidad de sus formas y la gravedad a la que puede arribar este cuadro, profesionales e investigadores posicionados desde distintos paradigmas se ocupan por comprenderlo y detectarlo tempranamente. Cada paradigma define su campo de investigación y las metodologías que va a emplear para abordar el problema de investigación, sostenido y fundado en supuestos teóricos que explican la realidad y que están en consonancia con la comunidad científica a la que reconocen como legítima. Creemos que la forma en la que se comprende el autismo desde el paradigma de la neurociencia es un problema susceptible de ser abordado también desde la perspectiva bioética, en función a las conductas y las prácticas de los individuos que llevan a cabo las investigaciones en este campo. Se hace necesario profundizar sobre las implicancias bioéticas que tiene la aplicación de los avances tecnológicos y la introducción de máquinas e instrumentos en el estudio y experimentación con niños en búsqueda de la medición de sus manifestaciones corporales. Reflexionar desde una perspectiva bioética genera la posibilidad de introducir nuevos enunciados ante el posible riesgo de caer en posturas que objetualizan y reducen la complejidad del sujeto a un mero mecanismo, desestimando así como opera el concepto de niñez y la singularidad en cada caso.

Auditory noise increases the allocation of attention to the mouth, and the eyes pay the price: An eye-tracking study

We investigated the effect of auditory noise added to speech on patterns of looking at faces in 40 toddlers. We hypothesised that noise would increase the difficulty of processing speech, making children allocate more attention to the mouth of the speaker to gain visual speech cues from mouth movements. We also hypothesised that this shift would cause a decrease in fixation time to the eyes, potentially decreasing the ability to monitor gaze. We found that adding noise increased the number of fixations to the mouth area, at the price of a decreased number of fixations to the eyes. Thus, to our knowledge, this is the first study demonstrating a mouth-eyes trade-off between attention allocated to social cues coming from the eyes and linguistic cues coming from the mouth. We also found that children with higher word recognition proficiency and higher average pupil response had an increased likelihood of fixating the mouth, compared to the eyes and the rest of the screen, indicating stronger motivation to decode the speech.

Atypical physiological orienting to direct gaze in low-functioning children with autism spectrum disorder

Reduced use of eye contact is a prominent feature in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). It has been proposed that direct gaze does not capture the attention of individuals with ASD. Experimental evidence is, however, mainly restricted to relatively high-functioning school-aged children or adults with ASD. This study investigated whether 2-5-year-old low-functioning children with severe ASD differ from control children in orienting to gaze stimuli, as measured with the heart rate deceleration response. Responses were measured to computerized presentations of dynamic shifts of gaze direction either toward (direct) or away (averted) from the observing child. The results showed a significant group by gaze direction interaction effect on heart rate responses (permuted P = .004), reflecting a stronger orienting response to direct versus averted gaze in typically developing (N = 17) and developmentally delayed (N = 16) children but not in children with ASD (N = 12). The lack of enhanced orienting response to direct gaze in the ASD group was not caused by a lack of looking at the eye region, as confirmed by eye tracking. The results suggest that direct gaze is not a socially salient, attention-grabbing signal for low-functioning children with ASD. Autism Res 2017, 10: 810-820. © 2017 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

A group of very preterm children characterized by atypical gaze patterns

OBJECTIVE

Very preterm (VP) children are at risk for social difficulties, including autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This study used eye tracking to determine viewing behaviors that may reflect these difficulties.

DESIGN

The gaze patterns of 47 VP (mean gestational age: 28weeks, mean birth weight: 948g, and mean chronological age: 49months) were assessed while viewing dynamic social scenes and compared with those of 25 typically developing (TD) and 25 children with ASD. The temporo-spatial gaze patterns were summarized on a two-dimensional plane using multidimensional scaling (MDS) and the median of the TD children was used to characterize the gazes of the VP children. Time spent viewing the face was also compared.

RESULTS

The VP children formed two clusters: one had a mean MDS distance comparable to that of TD group (n=32; VP-small), and the other had a larger mean distance comparable to that of ASD group (n=15; VP-large). The VP-large were similar to the ASD group by spending significantly less time viewing the face. Their performance was comparable to the TD during the initial 1s, but they could not remain focused on the face thereafter.

CONCLUSIONS

The VP children were objectively classified into two groups based on gaze behaviors. One group was comparable to TD children, whereas the other had difficulty maintaining attention and exhibited atypical viewing behaviors similar to those of the ASD group. Our method may be useful in identifying VP children at higher risk for experiencing social difficulties.

Gazefinder as a clinical supplementary tool for discriminating between autism spectrum disorder and typical development in male adolescents and adults

Background

Gaze abnormality is a diagnostic criterion for autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, few easy-to-use clinical tools exist to evaluate the unique eye-gaze patterns of ASD. Recently, we developed Gazefinder, an all-in-one eye-tracking system for early detection of ASD in toddlers. Because abnormal gaze patterns have been documented in various ASD age groups, we predicted that Gazefinder might also detect gaze abnormality in adolescents and adults. In this study, we tested whether Gazefinder could identify unique gaze patterns in adolescents and adults with ASD.

Methods

We measured the percentage of eye fixation time allocated to particular objects depicted in movies (i.e., eyes and mouth in human face movies, upright and inverted biological motion in movies that presented these stimuli simultaneously, and people and geometry in movies that presented these stimuli simultaneously) by male adolescents and adults with ASD (N = 26) and age-matched males with typical development (TD; N = 35). We compared these percentages between the two groups (ASD and TD) and with scores on the social responsiveness scale (SRS). Further, we conducted discriminant analyses to determine if fixation times allocated to particular objects could be used to discriminate between individuals with and without ASD.

Results

Compared with the TD group, the ASD group showed significantly less fixation time at locations of salient social information (i.e., eyes in the movie of human faces without lip movement and people in the movie of people and geometry), while there were no significant groupwise differences in the responses to movies of human faces with lip movement or biological motion. In a within-group correlation analysis, a few of the fixation-time items correlated with SRS, although most of them did not. No items significantly correlated with SRS in both ASD and TD groups. The percentage fixation times to eyes and people, which exhibited large effect sizes for the group difference, could differentiate ASD and TD with a sensitivity of 81.0 % and a specificity of 80.0 %.

Conclusions

These findings suggest that Gazefinder is potentially a valuable and easy-to-use tool for objectively measuring unique gaze patterns and discriminating between ASD and TD in male adolescents and adults.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13229-016-0083-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

[Slowing down the flow of facial information enhances facial scanning in children with autism spectrum disorders: A pilot eye tracking study]

OBJECTIVE

Face and gaze avoidance are among the most characteristic and salient symptoms of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Studies using eye tracking highlighted early and lifelong ASD-specific abnormalities in attention to face such as decreased attention to internal facial features. These specificities could be partly explained by disorders in the perception and integration of rapid and complex information such as that conveyed by facial movements and more broadly by biological and physical environment. Therefore, we wish to test whether slowing down facial dynamics may improve the way children with ASD attend to a face.

METHODS

We used an eye tracking method to examine gaze patterns of children with ASD aged 3 to 8 (n=23) and TD controls (n=29) while viewing the face of a speaker telling a story. The story was divided into 6 sequences that were randomly displayed at 3 different speeds, i.e. a real-time speed (RT), a slow speed (S70=70% of RT speed), a very slow speed (S50=50% of RT speed). S70 and S50 were displayed thanks to software called Logiral™, aimed at slowing down visual and auditory stimuli simultaneously and without tone distortion. The visual scene was divided into four regions of interest (ROI): eyes region; mouth region; whole face region; outside the face region. The total time, number and mean duration of visual fixations on the whole visual scene and the four ROI were measured between and within the two groups.

RESULTS

Compared to TD children, children with ASD spent significantly less time attending to the visual scenes and, when they looked at the scene, they spent less time scanning the speaker's face in general and her mouth in particular, and more time looking outside facial area. Within the ASD group mean duration of fixation increased on the whole scene and particularly on the mouth area, in R50 compared to RT. Children with mild autism spent more time looking at the face than the two other groups of ASD children, and spent more time attending to the face and mouth as well as longer mean duration of visual fixation on mouth and eyes, at slow speeds (S50 and/or S70) than at RT one.

CONCLUSIONS

Slowing down facial dynamics enhances looking time on face, and particularly on mouth and/or eyes, in a group of 23 children with ASD and particularly in a small subgroup with mild autism. Given the crucial role of reading the eyes for emotional processing and that of lip-reading for language processing, our present result and other converging ones could pave the way for novel socio-emotional and verbal rehabilitation methods for autistic population. Further studies should investigate whether increased attention to face and particularly eyes and mouth is correlated to emotional/social and/or verbal/language improvements.

Morphing technique reveals intact perception of object motion and disturbed perception of emotional expressions by low-functioning adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder

A morphing procedure has been designed to compare directly the perception of emotional expressions and of moving objects. Morphing tasks were presented to 12 low-functioning teenagers with Autism Spectrum Disorder (LF ASD) compared to 12 developmental age-matched typical children and a group presenting ceiling performance. In a first study, when presented with morphed stimuli of objects and emotional faces, LF ASD showed an intact perception of object change of state together with an impaired perception of emotional facial change of state. In a second study, an eye-tracker recorded visual exploration of morphed emotional stimuli displayed by a human face and a robotic set-up. Facing the morphed robotic stimuli, LF ASD displayed equal duration of fixations toward emotional regions and toward mechanical sources of motion, while the typical groups tracked the emotional regions only. Altogether the findings of the two studies suggest that individuals with ASD process motion rather than emotional signals when facing facial expressions.

Theory of Mind in Children With Specific Language Impairment: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

The relation between language and theory of mind (ToM) has been debated for more than two decades. In a similar vein, ToM has been examined in children with specific language impairment (SLI), albeit with inconsistent results. This meta-analysis of 17 studies with 745 children between the ages of 4 and 12 found that children with SLI had substantially lower ToM performance compared to age-matched typically developing children (d = .98). This effect size was not moderated by age and gender. By revealing that children with SLI have ToM impairments, this finding emphasizes the need for further investigation into the developmental interface between language and ToM as well as the extended consequences of atypical language development.

Different visual preference patterns in response to simple and complex dynamic social stimuli in preschool-aged children with autism spectrum disorders

Eye-tracking studies in young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have shown a visual attention preference for geometric patterns when viewing paired dynamic social images (DSIs) and dynamic geometric images (DGIs). In the present study, eye-tracking of two different paired presentations of DSIs and DGIs was monitored in a group of 13 children aged 4 to 6 years with ASD and 20 chronologically age-matched typically developing children (TDC). The results indicated that compared with the control group, children with ASD attended significantly less to DSIs showing two or more children playing than to similar DSIs showing a single child. Visual attention preference in 4- to 6-year-old children with ASDs, therefore, appears to be modulated by the type of visual stimuli.

Face-viewing patterns in young children with autism spectrum disorders: speaking up for the role of language comprehension

PURPOSE

The aim was to examine whether viewing patterns toward the mouth, eyes, and nonmouth-noneyes areas differed between young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and typically developing (TD) children when viewing a person speaking. The role of language comprehension in such viewing patterns was also examined.

METHOD

Eleven children with ASD (approximately 4.5 years old) and 29 TD toddlers (approximately 2.5 years old) participated. The groups were matched on language comprehension raw scores from the Reynell Developmental Language Scales III. All children viewed short films of a woman speaking while their eye movements were recorded with eye-tracking equipment.

RESULTS

Children with ASD spent proportionally less time viewing the mouth and more time viewing the nonmouth-noneyes areas. Time viewing the eyes did not differ between groups. Increased mouth viewing was associated with lower language comprehension in the group with ASD.

CONCLUSION

Variability in language comprehension is an important factor to monitor when interpreting face-viewing patterns in young children with ASD, particularly with regard to mouth viewing. The results may help explain divergent findings in this field of research.

A systematic review and meta-analysis of eye-tracking studies in children with autism spectrum disorders

Aberrant eye gaze mechanisms have been implicated in autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Studies of eye movements in children with ASD reveal diminished eye gaze duration and lack of specific eye gaze fixation to the eyes and/or mouth compared with controls. However, findings to date have been contradictory. We examined eye-tracking studies on face processing in children with ASD and conducted meta-analyses to examine whether these children demonstrate atypical fixation on primary facial regions. Twenty eye-tracking studies in children with ASD were reviewed, of which the results from 14 studies were incorporated in the meta-analyses that evaluated fixation duration on (i) eyes (eight studies) and (ii) mouth (six studies). The results reveal that children with ASD have significantly reduced gaze fixation to the eye region of faces. The results of the meta-analyses indicate that ASD patients have significant impairments in gaze fixation to the eyes. On the other hand, no significant difference was uncovered in terms of fixation to the mouth region; however, this finding needs to be interpreted with caution because of the significant heterogeneity in the mouth fixation studies. The findings of this meta-analysis add further clarity to an expanding literature and suggest that specific eye gaze fixation to the eye region may represent a robust biomarker for the condition. The heterogeneity associated with the mouth fixation data precludes any definitive statement as to the robustness of these findings.

Zebrafish as an emerging model for studying complex brain disorders

The zebrafish (Danio rerio) is rapidly becoming a popular model organism in pharmacogenetics and neuropharmacology. Both larval and adult zebrafish are currently used to increase our understanding of brain function, dysfunction, and their genetic and pharmacological modulation. Here we review the developing utility of zebrafish in the analysis of complex brain disorders (including, e.g., depression, autism, psychoses, drug abuse, and cognitive deficits), also covering zebrafish applications towards the goal of modeling major human neuropsychiatric and drug-induced syndromes. We argue that zebrafish models of complex brain disorders and drug-induced conditions are a rapidly emerging critical field in translational neuroscience and pharmacology research.