Brief Report: Patterns of Eye Movements in Face to Face Conversation are Associated with Autistic Traits: Evidence from a Student Sample

Vabalas, Andrius; Freeth, Megan

doi:10.1007/s10803-015-2546-y

Cited by 76 publications

(82 citation statements)

References 53 publications

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“… Note the results we report for the mouth control region were replicated for an alternative larger control region comprising the entire bottom half of the face (e.g., as used by Vabalas & Freeth, ; see Supporting information). …”

supporting

confidence: 60%

“…Moreover, a similar contradiction is present even in reviews and meta‐analyses, with a conclusion of reduced looking at eyes in ASD in Papagiannopoulou, Chitty, Hermens, Hickie, and Lagopoulos (), but not in Falck‐Ytter and von Hofsten (), or Guillon, Hadjikhani, Baduel, and Rogé (). Further, the contradiction is also present in the smaller number of studies testing the general population: for example, one study has found higher autistic traits to be associated with less eye contact in response to direct gaze (Chen & Yoon, ), but another found higher autistic traits showed no association with proportion of looking to the eye half of the face (i.e., the top half) compared to the non‐eye half (i.e., the bottom half; Vabalas & Freeth, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Social and attention‐to‐detail subclusters of autistic traits differentially predict looking at eyes and face identity recognition ability

Davis

McKone

Zirnsak

et al. 2016

British J of Psychology

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This study distinguished between different subclusters of autistic traits in the general population and examined the relationships between these subclusters, looking at the eyes of faces, and the ability to recognize facial identity. Using the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ) measure in a university-recruited sample, we separate the social aspects of autistic traits (i.e., those related to communication and social interaction; AQ-Social) from the non-social aspects, particularly attention-to-detail (AQ-Attention). We provide the first evidence that these social and non-social aspects are associated differentially with looking at eyes: While AQ-Social showed the commonly assumed tendency towards reduced looking at eyes, AQ-Attention was associated with increased looking at eyes. We also report that higher attentionto-detail (AQ-Attention) was then indirectly related to improved face recognition, mediated by increased number of fixations to the eyes during face learning. Higher levels of socially relevant autistic traits (AQ-Social) trended in the opposite direction towards being related to poorer face recognition (significantly so in females on the Cambridge Face Memory Test). There was no evidence of any mediated relationship between AQ-Social and face recognition via reduced looking at the eyes. These different effects of AQ-Attention and AQ-Social suggest face-processing studies in Autism Spectrum Disorder might similarly benefit from considering symptom subclusters. Additionally, concerning mechanisms of face recognition, our results support the view that more looking at eyes predicts better face memory.

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supporting

confidence: 60%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social and attention‐to‐detail subclusters of autistic traits differentially predict looking at eyes and face identity recognition ability

Davis

McKone

Zirnsak

et al. 2016

British J of Psychology

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“…Yet, evidence from studies of individual differences in the general population is not entirely consistent with the evidence provided by Freeth and Bugembe's case-control study. Neither, Vabalas and Freeth (2016), nor Freeth et al (2013), found a significant correlation between the number of autistic traits self-reported by neurotypical adults and the number of looks to the experimenter during a live interaction with a social partner (Freeth, Foulsham, & Kingstone, 2013). On the other hand, Vabalas and Freeth (2016) did find that participants with higher numbers of autistic traits manifested in a reduced tendedency to explore the scene visually.…”

mentioning

confidence: 78%

Perspective influences eye movements during real-life conversation: Mentalising about self vs. others in autism

Barzy¹,

Hj²,

Williams³

2019

Preprint

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Socio-communication is profoundly impaired among autistic individuals. Difficulties representing others’ mental states have been linked to modulations of gaze and speech, which have also been shown to be impaired in autism. Despite these observed impairments in ‘real-world’ communicative settings, research has mostly focused on lab-based experiments, where the language is highly structured. In a pre-registered experiment, we recorded eye movements and verbal responses while adults (N=50) engaged in a real-life conversation. Conversation topic either related to the self, a familiar other, or an unfamiliar other (e.g. "Tell me who is your/your mother’s/Marina’s favourite celebrity and why?”). Results replicated previous work, showing reduced attention to socially-relevant information among autistic participants (i.e. less time looking at the experimenter’s face, and more time looking around the background), compared to typically-developing controls. Importantly, perspective modulated social attention in both groups; talking about an unfamiliar other reduced attention to potentially distracting or resource demanding social information, and increased looks to non-social background. Social attention did not differ between self and familiar other contexts- reflecting greater shared knowledge for familiar/similar others. Autistic participants spent more time looking at the background when talking about an unfamiliar other vs. themselvesFuture research should investigate the cognitive mechanisms underlying this effect.

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“…They can have difficulty disengaging from an initial point of fixation (Kikuchi et al 2011;Landry and Bryson 2004) and in demanding tasks tend to display reduced saccadic activity (Kemner et al 1998;Goldberg et al 2002). In line with this Vabalas and Freeth (2015) recently found that during a face-to-face interaction individuals who were high in autistic displayed restricted eye-movements (shorter and less frequent saccades) compared to peers who were low in autistic traits. Visual inspection of objects is also often prolonged or unusual in infants who later develop ASD (Ozonoff et al 2008).…”

Section: Individuals With Asd Generally Display Heightened Attention mentioning

confidence: 94%

Reduced visual exploration when viewing photographic scenes in individuals with autism spectrum disorder.

Heaton¹,

Freeth²

2016

Journal of Abnormal Psychology

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Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) often display enhanced attention to detail and exhibit restricted behaviour. However, due to a lack of comprehensive eye-movement modelling techniques, it is currently unknown whether these behavioural effects are also evident during scene viewing (i.e. detailed visual inspection and restricted visual exploration). Free viewing eye-tracking data from observation of everyday photographic scenes were recorded during two experiments involving high functioning adolescents with ASD and matched typically developing (TD) controls (Experiment 1 ASD n=14; TD n=22; Experiment 2 ASD n=16; TD n=23). Data from both experiments were combined and analysed using five novel methods of eye-tracking time-course analysis, enabling detailed characterisation of viewing strategies. Participants' verbal descriptions of scenes were also assessed. Scenes either contained a centrally positioned person whose face was in full view or contained no centrally positioned face. For both types of scene, ASD participants displayed significantly less exploration of new areas over time compared to their TD peers. Analyses of scanpath length and recursion suggested a greater tendency to explore areas close to the current fixation in the ASD group, termed visual persistence. Differences were not accounted for by fixation rate. Significantly more areas within the scenes were also missing from the verbal descriptions in the ASD group. Differences were observed for both scene types suggesting a domain-general difference rather than a specific impairment related to face processing. The observed characteristic viewing patterns may explain relative superior processing of local level information in individuals with ASD.General Scientific Summary: Using new analytic approaches to eye-tracking data, we demonstrate that eye movements when free-viewing visually complex scenes made by individuals with autism are fundamentally different compared to those of their typically developing peers. We observed reduced visual exploration in those with autism and a greater tendency to explore areas close to the current fixation. This will result in the visual information received by the perceptual system being systematically different between those who have autism and those who do not.

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Brief Report: Patterns of Eye Movements in Face to Face Conversation are Associated with Autistic Traits: Evidence from a Student Sample

Cited by 76 publications

References 53 publications

Social and attention‐to‐detail subclusters of autistic traits differentially predict looking at eyes and face identity recognition ability

Social and attention‐to‐detail subclusters of autistic traits differentially predict looking at eyes and face identity recognition ability

Perspective influences eye movements during real-life conversation: Mentalising about self vs. others in autism

Reduced visual exploration when viewing photographic scenes in individuals with autism spectrum disorder.

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