Visual preference for social vs. non-social images in young children with autism spectrum disorders. An eye tracking study.

ABSTRACT: Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are associated to social attention (SA) impairments. A gaze bias to non-social objects over faces has been proposed as an early marker of ASD. This bias may be related to the concomitant circumscribed interests (CI), which question the role of competing objects in this atypical visual behavior. The aim of this study was to compare visual attention patterns to social and non-social images in young children with ASD and matched typical controls (N = 36; age range 41-73 months) assessing the role of emotion in facial stimuli and the type of competing object. A paired preference task was designed pairing happy, angry, and neutral faces with two types of objects (related or not related to autism CI). Eye tracking data were collected, and three indexes were consid

SUBMITTER: Vacas J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8177541 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature