Atypical Value-Driven Selective Attention in Young Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder

Wang, Quan; Chang, Joseph T.; Chawarska, Katarzyna

doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.4928

Cited by 14 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 70 publications

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“…Longer P200 latency suggests a slower processing of visual input in autistic participants (Portella et al, 2012) or an over‐processing of information needed for accurate stimuli differentiation (Sokhadze et al, 2009). Reduced selective attention to socially meaningful stimuli has been previously described in ASD (Tyndall et al, 2018; Wang et al, 2020), and our results add to such evidence, by suggesting that less accurate AI in ASD may derive from dysfunction in early stages of selective attention to stimuli that are necessary to aptly anticipate the outcome of the strip. This results in ineffective discrimination between socially relevant and socially irrelevant stimuli and increased processing time (reflected in increased P200 latency) (Wang et al, 2017).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

Attribution of intentions in autism spectrum disorder: A study of event‐related potentials

et al. 2022

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Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterized by social cognition deficits, including difficulties inferring the intentions of others. Although deficits in attribution of intentions (AI) have been consistently replicated in ASD, their exact nature remains unexplored. Here we registered the electrophysiological correlates of a nonverbal social cognition task to investigate AI in autistic adults. Twenty-one male autistic adults and 30 male neurotypical volunteers performed a comic strips task depicting either intentional action (AI) or physical causality with or without human characters, while their electroencephalographic signal was recorded. Compared to neurotypical volunteers, autistic participants were significantly less accurate in correctly identifying congruence in the AI condition, but not in the physical causality conditions. In the AI condition a bilateral posterior positive event-related potential (ERP) occurred 200-400 ms post-stimulus (the ERP intention effect) in both groups. This waveform comprised a P200 and a P300 component, with the P200 component being larger for the AI condition in neurotypical volunteers but not in autistic individuals, who also showed a longer latency for this waveform. Group differences in amplitude of the ERP intention effect only became evident when we compared autistic participants to a subgroup of similarly performing neurotypical participants, suggesting that the atypical ERP waveform in ASD is an effect of group, rather than a marker of low-task performance. Together, these results suggest that the lower accuracy of the ASD group in the AI task may result from impaired early attentional processing and contextual integration of socially relevant cues. Lay SummaryTo understand why autistic people have difficulties in inferring others' intentions, we asked participants to judge the congruence of the endings of comic strips depicting either intentional actions (e.g., fetching a chair to reach for something) or situations solely following physical rules (e.g., an apple falling on someone's head), while their electrical brain activity was recorded. Autistic individuals had more difficulties in inferring intentions than neurotypical controls, which may reflect impaired attention and contextual integration of social cues.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

Attribution of intentions in autism spectrum disorder: A study of event‐related potentials

et al. 2022

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“…The free‐viewing study design reliably captured how long the participants dwelled on specific ROIs (e.g., face, mouth). Nonetheless, our prior work (Chawarska & Shic, 2009; Wang, Chang, & Chawarska, 2020) has shown that intact attention does not always guarantee that the key information contained in the displays is learned and remembered if the mechanisms responsible for the processing of such information are not functioning properly. Thus, to fully understand factors responsible for language delays in infants with ASD and in the unaffected high‐risk siblings, future studies should examine processing of audiovisual prosodic and speech cues across the autism risk spectrum at the behavioral and neurophysiological levels.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Attention to audiovisual speech does not facilitate language acquisition in infants with familial history of autism

Chawarska

Lewkowicz

Feiner

et al. 2022

Child Psychology Psychiatry

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Background: Due to familial liability, siblings of children with ASD exhibit elevated risk for language delays. The processes contributing to language delays in this population remain unclear. Methods: Considering well-established links between attention to dynamic audiovisual cues inherent in a speaker's face and speech processing, we investigated if attention to a speaker's face and mouth differs in 12-month-old infants at high familial risk for ASD but without ASD diagnosis (hr-sib; n = 91) and in infants at low familial risk (lr-sib; n = 62) for ASD and whether attention at 12 months predicts language outcomes at 18 months. Results: At 12 months, hr-sib and lr-sib infants did not differ in attention to face (p = .14), mouth preference (p = .30), or in receptive and expressive language scores (p = .36, p = .33). At 18 months, the hr-sib infants had lower receptive (p = .01) but not expressive (p = .84) language scores than the lr-sib infants. In the lr-sib infants, greater attention to the face (p = .022) and a mouth preference (p = .025) contributed to better language outcomes at 18 months. In the hr-sib infants, neither attention to the face nor a mouth preference was associated with language outcomes at 18 months. Conclusions: Unlike low-risk infants, high-risk infants do not appear to benefit from audiovisual prosodic and speech cues in the service of language acquisition despite intact attention to these cues. We propose that impaired processing of audiovisual cues may constitute the link between genetic risk factors and poor language outcomes observed across the autism risk spectrum and may represent a promising endophenotype in autism.

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“…Second, although attention enables learning in general, it does not guarantee that learning will take place. Indeed, several recent studies examining different forms of learning in ASD demonstrated that while toddlers with ASD may attend to faces during learning tasks, they are less likely than control groups to abstract their invariant features (Chawarska & Shic, 2009; Wang et al, 2018; Wang et al, 2020). Thus, it remains to be determined if the typical patterns of attention to puppets in ASD translate into learning.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Puppets facilitate attention to social cues in children with ASD

et al. 2021

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Diminished visual attention to faces of social partners represents one of the early characteristics of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Here we examine if the introduction of puppets as social partners alters attention to speakers' faces in young children with ASD and typically developing (TD) controls. Children with ASD (N = 37; Mage = 49.44 months) and TD (N = 27; Mage = 40.66 months) viewed a video depicting a puppet and a human engaged in a conversation. Dwell time on these faces was analyzed as a function of group and speaker's identity. Unlike TD controls, the ASD group exhibited limited visual attention to and chance‐level visual preference for the human speaker. However, attention to and preference for the puppet speaker's face was greater than chance and comparable across the two groups. While there was a strong association between low human speaker preference and high autism severity, no association with autism severity was found for puppet speaker preference. Unlike humans, expressive and verbal puppets attracted the attention of children with ASD at levels comparable to that of TD controls. Considering that puppets can engage in reciprocal interactions and deliver simplified, salient social‐communicative cues, they may facilitate therapeutic efforts in children with ASD. Lay Summary While studies have shown support for therapeutic uses of robots with children with autism, other similar agents such as puppets remain to be explored. When shown a video of a conversation between a puppet and a person, young children with ASD paid as much attention to the puppet's face as typically‐developing (TD) children. Since puppets can engage in back‐and‐forth interactions and model social interactions and communication, they may play a promising role in therapeutic efforts for young children with ASD.

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Atypical Value-Driven Selective Attention in Young Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder

Cited by 14 publications

References 70 publications

Attribution of intentions in autism spectrum disorder: A study of event‐related potentials

Attribution of intentions in autism spectrum disorder: A study of event‐related potentials

Attention to audiovisual speech does not facilitate language acquisition in infants with familial history of autism

Puppets facilitate attention to social cues in children with ASD

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