Visual Preference for Biological Motion in Children and Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder: An Eye-Tracking Study

Kaliukhovich, Dzmitry A.; Manyakov, Nikolay V.; Bangerter, Abigail; Ness, Seth; Skalkin, Andrew; Boice, Matthew; Goodwin, Matthew S.; Dawson, Geraldine; Hendren, Robert L.; Leventhal, Bennett L.; Shic, Frederick; Pandina, Gahan

doi:10.1007/s10803-020-04707-w

Cited by 12 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…These atypical fixations are thought to reflect atypical social attention, a leading hypothesis in autism research [ 31 , 32 ]. Another robust finding is that autistic infants have a reduced preference for biological motion stimuli [ 4 , 33 – 35 ]. Other theories propose atypical attention to visual stimuli that involve other people’s direction of eye gaze [ 36 ], prediction [ 37 ], geometric patterns [ 38 ], local versus global processing [ 39 ], or imitation engagement [ 40 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Atypical gaze patterns in autistic adults are heterogeneous across but reliable within individuals

et al. 2022

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Background Across behavioral studies, autistic individuals show greater variability than typically developing individuals. However, it remains unknown to what extent this variability arises from heterogeneity across individuals, or from unreliability within individuals. Here, we focus on eye tracking, which provides rich dependent measures that have been used extensively in studies of autism. Autistic individuals have an atypical gaze onto both static visual images and dynamic videos that could be leveraged for diagnostic purposes if the above open question could be addressed. Methods We tested three competing hypotheses: (1) that gaze patterns of autistic individuals are less reliable or noisier than those of controls, (2) that atypical gaze patterns are individually reliable but heterogeneous across autistic individuals, or (3) that atypical gaze patterns are individually reliable and also homogeneous among autistic individuals. We collected desktop-based eye tracking data from two different full-length television sitcom episodes, at two independent sites (Caltech and Indiana University), in a total of over 150 adult participants (N = 48 autistic individuals with IQ in the normal range, 105 controls) and quantified gaze onto features of the videos using automated computer vision-based feature extraction. Results We found support for the second of these hypotheses. Autistic people and controls showed equivalently reliable gaze onto specific features of videos, such as faces, so much so that individuals could be identified significantly above chance using a fingerprinting approach from video epochs as short as 2 min. However, classification of participants into diagnostic groups based on their eye tracking data failed to produce clear group classifications, due to heterogeneity in the autistic group. Limitations Three limitations are the relatively small sample size, assessment across only two videos (from the same television series), and the absence of other dependent measures (e.g., neuroimaging or genetics) that might have revealed individual-level variability that was not evident with eye tracking. Future studies should expand to larger samples across longer longitudinal epochs, an aim that is now becoming feasible with Internet- and phone-based eye tracking. Conclusions These findings pave the way for the investigation of autism subtypes, and for elucidating the specific visual features that best discriminate gaze patterns—directions that will also combine with and inform neuroimaging and genetic studies of this complex disorder.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Atypical gaze patterns in autistic adults are heterogeneous across but reliable within individuals

et al. 2022

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“…Less time spent on biological motion, faces and eyes have indeed been classically reported (e.g. 4,5,12 , but see 13 ), with a less systematical visual exploration pattern 14 . Moreover, when social and non-social contents are presented simultaneously, autistic participants show a preference for non-social stimuli 15,16 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 85%

The power of combining oculometric and pupillometric parameters for autism screening in children

Mofid,

Druart,

Bufo

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Autism Spectrum Disorder is a neurodevelopmental trouble for which no objective biomarker has yet been discovered. The search for an accessible biomarker aims, in particular, for early autism screening, in order to optimize tailored intervention when necessary. In this context, eye-tracking has been now used for numerous years in the field of research on autism as it allows for non-intrusive, no-contact recordings even in very young children. However, individual oculometric parameters, while showing significant differences between groups of autistic and non-autistic individuals, are not discriminative enough for individual screening. In this study, we combined oculometric measures with pupillary parameters obtained simultaneously by the eye-tracker, and used a machine-learning approach to estimate the discriminative performance of such combinations of parameters. Data were obtained in 72 autistic and 93 neurotypical 2-13 years old children observing objects and faces during less than a minute. We used the Weka datamining software, testing 36 machine-learning algorithms without any a priori, in order to describe robust and convergent performance. Moreover, we chose to report only performance associated with high sensitivity, specificity and accuracy. We showed that oculo-pupillometric combinations of parameters allowed to reach outstanding discriminative performance in young children, paving the way for a clinical use.

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“… Hirai and Senju (2020) have proposed an integrative hypothesis of the two-process theory, wherein the “step detector” responsible for the local motions of feet below the body precedes the “bodily action evaluator” that processes the global processing of action types and styles. Several studies in both human adults and children have suggested the association between reduced sensitivity to BM and ASD ( Blake et al, 2003 ; Rutherford et al, 2006 ; Wang et al, 2018 ; Kaliukhovich et al, 2021 ) [also see the recent meta-analysis ( Federici et al, 2020 )]. Importantly, it should be noted that, in our current context, visual preferences for social stimuli (face inversion, averted eye gaze, and BM) markedly differ between the two groups of infants with high and low familial risk of autism ( Di Giorgio et al, 2016a ).…”

Section: Surface Validitymentioning

confidence: 99%

The domestic chick as an animal model of autism spectrum disorder: building adaptive social perceptions through prenatally formed predispositions

Matsushima,

Izumi,

Vallortigara

2024

Front. Neurosci.

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Equipped with an early social predisposition immediately post-birth, humans typically form associations with mothers and other family members through exposure learning, canalized by a prenatally formed predisposition of visual preference to biological motion, face configuration, and other cues of animacy. If impaired, reduced preferences can lead to social interaction impairments such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD) via misguided canalization. Despite being taxonomically distant, domestic chicks could also follow a homologous developmental trajectory toward adaptive socialization through imprinting, which is guided via predisposed preferences similar to those of humans, thereby suggesting that chicks are a valid animal model of ASD. In addition to the phenotypic similarities in predisposition with human newborns, accumulating evidence on the responsible molecular mechanisms suggests the construct validity of the chick model. Considering the recent progress in the evo-devo studies in vertebrates, we reviewed the advantages and limitations of the chick model of developmental mental diseases in humans.

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Visual Preference for Biological Motion in Children and Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder: An Eye-Tracking Study

Cited by 12 publications

References 61 publications

Atypical gaze patterns in autistic adults are heterogeneous across but reliable within individuals

Atypical gaze patterns in autistic adults are heterogeneous across but reliable within individuals

The power of combining oculometric and pupillometric parameters for autism screening in children

The domestic chick as an animal model of autism spectrum disorder: building adaptive social perceptions through prenatally formed predispositions

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