Vigilance or avoidance: How do autistic traits and social anxiety modulate attention to the eyes?

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are highly overlapping in symptoms and have a high rate of comorbidity, posing challenges in diagnosis and intervention for both disorders. Both disorders are linked to abnormal attention to the eyes, yet how they interactively modulate the attentional process to the eyes remains unclear.

Methods

In this study, we explored how autistic traits and social anxiety in college students separately and together affected different temporal stages of attention to the eyes. Participants were instructed to view virtual faces for 10 s and make an emotional judgment, while their eye movements were recorded.

Results

We found that social anxiety and autistic traits affected different temporal stages of eye

SUBMITTER: Ni W 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9876610 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature