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Updated: Feb 12, 2026
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Eye Tracking Young Children with Autism
Published on: March 27, 2012
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The Broader Autism Phenotype and Visual Perception in Children
Antoinette Sabatino DiCriscio1, Vanessa Troiani2
1Geisinger Health System, Geisinger Autism and Developmental Medicine Institute (ADMI), Lewisburg, PA, 17837, USA. asdicriscio@geisinger.edu.
Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders
|March 26, 2018
Summary
Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) show atypical visual perception. Specifically, difficulty disembedding figures from complex backgrounds (visual figure-ground) correlated with autism traits in a pediatric study.
Area of Science:
- Neurodevelopmental Disorders
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Developmental Psychology
Background:
- Atypical visual perception is frequently observed in autism spectrum disorders (ASD).
- These visual processing differences are linked to autism-like traits found in the general population.
- Understanding these links is crucial for characterizing developmental brain disorders.
Purpose of the Study:
- To examine the relationship between visual processing skills and quantitative measures of autism traits in children.
- To determine if specific visual processing abilities are associated with autism phenotypes.
Main Methods:
- Utilized the Test of Visual Perceptual Skills (TVPS), a standardized assessment with seven subtests.
- Focused on the TVPS Figure Ground (TVPS-FG) subtest, which measures the ability to disembed figures from complex scenes.
- Assessed autism traits using the parental report of the Broader Autism Phenotype Questionnaire (BAP-Q).
Main Results:
- A significant positive correlation was found between TVPS-FG subtest scores and children's autism features (BAP-Q scores).
- This correlation was specific to the TVPS-FG subtest, with other TVPS subtest scores showing no significant relationship with BAP-Q.
- This suggests a targeted link between figure-ground visual processing and the autism phenotype.
Conclusions:
- Atypical visual processing, particularly in figure-ground discrimination, is associated with the autism phenotype.
- This finding supports the continuum model of autism, where quantitative traits exist in the general population.
- Highlights the importance of assessing quantitative visual processing skills in developmental disorders.
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