Social and non-social cueing of visuospatial attention in autism and typical development

J Autism Dev Disord. 2011 Jun;41(6):715-31. doi: 10.1007/s10803-010-1090-z.

Abstract

Three experiments explored attention to eye gaze, which is incompletely understood in typical development and is hypothesized to be disrupted in autism. Experiment 1 (n = 26 typical adults) involved covert orienting to box, arrow, and gaze cues at two probabilities and cue-target times to test whether reorienting for gaze is endogenous, exogenous, or unique; experiment 2 (total n = 80: male and female children and adults) studied age and sex effects on gaze cueing. Gaze cueing appears endogenous and may strengthen in typical development. Experiment 3 tested exogenous, endogenous, and gaze-based orienting in 25 typical and 27 Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) children. ASD children made more saccades, slowing their reaction times; however, exogenous and endogenous orienting, including gaze cueing, appear intact in ASD.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study
  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Age Factors
  • Attention*
  • Autistic Disorder / physiopathology*
  • Autistic Disorder / psychology
  • Child
  • Child Development
  • Cues*
  • Eye Movements*
  • Female
  • Fixation, Ocular
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Neuropsychological Tests
  • Reaction Time
  • Saccades
  • Sex Factors
  • Social Perception*
  • Space Perception*