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Molecular Autism
Published in: Molecular Autism 1/2018

Open Access 01-12-2018 | Research

Operationalizing atypical gaze in toddlers with autism spectrum disorders: a cohesion-based approach

Authors: Quan Wang, Daniel J. Campbell, Suzanne L. Macari, Katarzyna Chawarska, Frederick Shic

Published in: Molecular Autism | Issue 1/2018

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Abstract

Background

Multiple eye-tracking studies have highlighted the “atypical” nature of social attention in autism. However, it is unclear how “atypical” or “typical” should be quantified.

Methods

We developed a method for identifying moments when members of a group looked at similar places (High-Cohesion Time Frames; HCTFs). We defined typicality as the proximity of gaze points to typically developing (TD) gaze points during TD HCTFs. Comparing toddlers with ASD (n = 112) to developmentally delayed (DD, n = 36) and TD (n = 163) toddlers during a video with Dyadic Bid, Sandwich-Making, Joint Attention, and Animated Toys conditions, we examined (a) individual typicality scores, (b) the relationship between typicality and symptom severity, and (c) HCTF distributions associated with each diagnostic group.

Results

The ASD group had lower gaze typicality scores compared to the TD and DD groups in the Dyadic Bid and Sandwich-Making conditions but not during Animated Toys. The DD and TD groups did not differ in any condition. Correlational analyses indicated that higher typicality scores were associated with increased looking at pre-planned locations of the scene indexed by each experimental condition. In the ASD group, lower gaze typicality was associated with more severe autism symptoms. Examining ASD HCTFs, the gaze of toddlers with ASD was least cohesive during Dyadic Bid and most cohesive during Animated Toys.

Conclusion

In contrast to non-ASD groups, toddlers with ASD show high cohesion during salient nonsocial events, suggesting that consistency in looking strategies may depend more on perceptual features. These findings are consequential for understanding individual differences in visual attention in ASD and for the design of more sensitive biomarker tasks for stratification, between-group differentiation, and measuring response to treatment.
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Metadata
Title
Operationalizing atypical gaze in toddlers with autism spectrum disorders: a cohesion-based approach
Authors
Quan Wang
Daniel J. Campbell
Suzanne L. Macari
Katarzyna Chawarska
Frederick Shic
Publication date
01-12-2018
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
Molecular Autism / Issue 1/2018
Electronic ISSN: 2040-2392
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s13229-018-0211-y

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