Context-Specific Dyadic Attention Vulnerabilities During the First Year in Infants Later Developing Autism Spectrum...

Area of Science:

• Developmental Psychology
• Neurodevelopmental Disorders
• Pediatric Medicine

Background:

• Early detection of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is crucial for timely intervention.
• While eye-tracking studies suggest early attention differences in ASD, behavioral studies in infancy have yielded mixed results.
• Understanding attention to faces in live interactions is key to identifying early behavioral markers.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the impact of context and diagnostic group on face attention in infants during live social interactions.
• To compare face attention in infants at high familial risk (HR) for ASD and low-risk (LR) controls.
• To explore potential behavioral markers for ASD in infancy.

Main Methods:

• A behavioral study involving 6-, 9-, and 12-month-old infants at high risk for ASD (later diagnosed with ASD, other developmental challenges, or typical development) and low-risk controls.
• Utilized the social orienting probes task with five conditions: dyadic bid, song, peek-a-boo, tickle, and toy play.
• Blinded raters coded infants' attention to an examiner's face from video recordings.

Main Results:

• Infants who later received an ASD diagnosis showed significantly less face attention than control groups in the Dyadic Bid and Tickle conditions across all ages.
• No significant differences in face attention were observed during Song, Peek-a-Boo, or Toy Play conditions.
• Reduced face attention in specific contexts correlated with increased autism symptom severity at 18 months.

Conclusions:

• Infants with ASD exhibit subtle impairments in face attention during specific interactive contexts, particularly those involving eye contact and child-directed speech.
• These context-specific attention differences may represent a promising behavioral marker for identifying ASD in infancy.
• Findings align with eye-tracking data, suggesting a consistent pattern of reduced face attention in early ASD.