Parsing heterogeneity in autism spectrum disorders: visual scanning of dynamic social scenes in school-aged children.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To examine patterns of variability in social visual engagement and their relationship to standardized measures of social disability in a heterogeneous sample of school-aged children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD).

Method

Eye-tracking measures of visual fixation during free-viewing of dynamic social scenes were obtained for 109 children with ASD (mean age, 10.2 ± 3.2 years), 37 of whom were matched with 26 typically-developing (TD) children (mean age, 9.5 ± 2.2 years) on gender, age, and IQ. The smaller subset allowed between-group comparisons, whereas the larger group was used for within-group examinations of ASD heterogeneity.

Results

Between-group comparisons revealed significantly attenuated orientation to socially salient aspects of the scenes, wit

SUBMITTER: Rice K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3306820 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature