Attentional network deficits in children with autism spectrum disorder

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often demonstrate deficient attentional ability, but the specific nature of the deficit is unclear. The Attention Networks model provides a useful approach to deconstruct this attentional deficit into its component parts.

Fifty-two neurotypical (NT) children and 14 children with ASD performed the child version of the Attention Network Test (ANT). The latter requires participants to indicate the direction of a centre target stimulus, which is presented above/below fixation and sometimes flanked by either congruent or incongruent distractor stimuli.

Relative to NT children, those with ASD were: (1) slower to react to spatially cued trials and (2) more error prone on executive (conflict) attention trials.

Young children with ASD have intact alerting attention, but less-efficient orienting and executive attention.