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Updated: Feb 12, 2026

Eye Tracking Young Children with Autism
Published on: March 27, 2012
Gaze Following is Related to the Broader Autism Phenotype in a Sex-Specific Way: Building the Case for Distinct Male
Elisabeth M Whyte1, K Suzanne Scherf1,2
1Dept. of Psychology, Pennsylvania State University.
Abstract:
The search for a female autism phenotype is difficult, given the low diagnostic rates in females. Here, we studied potential sex differences in a core feature of autism, difficulty with eye gaze processing, among typically developing individuals who vary in the broad autism phenotype, which includes autistic-like traits that are common, continuously distributed, and similarly heritable in males and females. Participants viewed complex images of an actor in a naturalistic scene looking at one of many possible objects and had to identify the target gazed-at object. Among males, those high in autistic-like traits exhibited worse eye gaze following performance than did those low in these traits. Among females, eye gaze following behavior did not vary with autistic-like traits. These results suggest that deficient eye gaze following behavior is part of the broader autism phenotype for males, but may not be a part of the female autism phenotype.
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