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Gaze in Action: Head-mounted Eye Tracking of Children's Dynamic Visual Attention During Naturalistic Behavior
Published on: November 14, 2018
Gaze Following and Attention to Objects in Infants at Familial Risk for ASD
Janet P Parsons1, Rachael Bedford2, Emily J H Jones1
1Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Birkbeck, University of London, London, United Kingdom.
Insights
Infants at familial risk for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who later developed ASD showed typical gaze following but spent less time on objects. This atypical attention distribution, not gaze following, impacts early language development in infants at high risk for ASD.
Area of Science:
- Developmental psychology
- Neurodevelopmental disorders
- Clinical psychology
Background:
- Reduced gaze following is linked to lower language scores in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
- Understanding early attention patterns in infants at familial risk for ASD is crucial for predicting developmental trajectories.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the association between gaze following, attention distribution during word learning, and later developmental/clinical outcomes in infants at familial risk for ASD.
- To differentiate the roles of gaze following versus attention distribution in language development for infants at high risk for ASD.
Main Methods:
- Eye-tracking was used in a controlled setting with 15-month-old infants (n=124, 101 with familial risk).
- Infants observed an actress gaze at and label one of two objects.
- Developmental and clinical outcomes were assessed later.
Main Results:
- Infants who later developed ASD exhibited typical gaze following frequency compared to peers.
- These infants spent less time engaged with objects.
- Increased face-gazing and decreased object-engagement correlated with lower verbal abilities, but not symptom severity.
- No group demonstrated word learning.
Conclusions:
- Atypical attention distribution, specifically less engagement with objects, is a key factor limiting language development in infants at familial risk for ASD.
- Gaze following ability itself is not the primary deficit; rather, how attention is allocated during social learning interactions is critical.
Abstract:
Reduced gaze following has been associated previously with lower language scores in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Here, we use eye-tracking in a controlled experimental setting to investigate whether gaze following and attention distribution during a word learning task associate with later developmental and clinical outcomes in a population of infants at familial risk for ASD. Fifteen-month-old infants (n = 124; n = 101 with familial risk) watched an actress repeatedly gaze toward and label one of two objects present in front of her. We show that infants who later developed ASD followed gaze as frequently as typically developing peers but spent less time engaged with either object. Moreover, more time spent on faces and less on objects was associated with lower concurrent or later verbal abilities, but not with later symptom severity. No outcome group showed evidence for word learning. Thus, atypical distribution of attention rather than poor gaze following is a limiting factor for language development in infants at familial risk for ASD.
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