Different visual preference patterns in response to simple and complex dynamic social stimuli in preschool-aged children with autism spectrum disorders

Lijuan Shi; Yuanyue Zhou; Jianjun Ou; Jingbo Gong; Suhong Wang; Xilong Cui; Hailong Lyu; Jingping Zhao; Xuerong Luo

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0122280

Different visual preference patterns in response to simple and complex dynamic social stimuli in preschool-aged children with autism spectrum disorders

PLoS One. 2015 Mar 17;10(3):e0122280. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0122280. eCollection 2015.

Authors

Lijuan Shi¹, Yuanyue Zhou², Jianjun Ou¹, Jingbo Gong³, Suhong Wang⁴, Xilong Cui¹, Hailong Lyu¹, Jingping Zhao¹, Xuerong Luo¹

Affiliations

¹ Mental Health Institute of The Second Xiangya Hospital and Key Laboratory of Psychiatry and Mental Health of Hunan Province, The Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, P.R. China.
² Mental Health Institute of The Second Xiangya Hospital and Key Laboratory of Psychiatry and Mental Health of Hunan Province, The Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, P.R. China; Hangzhou Seventh People's Hospital, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, P.R. China.
³ Mental Health Institute of The Second Xiangya Hospital and Key Laboratory of Psychiatry and Mental Health of Hunan Province, The Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, P.R. China; Traditional Chinese Medicine University of Hunan, Changsha, Hunan, P.R. China.
⁴ Mental Health Institute of The Second Xiangya Hospital and Key Laboratory of Psychiatry and Mental Health of Hunan Province, The Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, P.R. China; Department of Neuroscience, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Changzhou, Jiangsu, P.R. China.

Abstract

Eye-tracking studies in young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have shown a visual attention preference for geometric patterns when viewing paired dynamic social images (DSIs) and dynamic geometric images (DGIs). In the present study, eye-tracking of two different paired presentations of DSIs and DGIs was monitored in a group of 13 children aged 4 to 6 years with ASD and 20 chronologically age-matched typically developing children (TDC). The results indicated that compared with the control group, children with ASD attended significantly less to DSIs showing two or more children playing than to similar DSIs showing a single child. Visual attention preference in 4- to 6-year-old children with ASDs, therefore, appears to be modulated by the type of visual stimuli.

Publication types

Clinical Trial
Comparative Study
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Attention*
Autism Spectrum Disorder / physiopathology*
Child
Child, Preschool
Female
Humans
Male
Pattern Recognition, Visual*

Grants and funding

This work was supported by grants from the Major State Basic Research Development Program of China (973 Program, No.2012CB517901), the Hunan Provincial Innovation Foundation For Postgraduate (No.CX2013B117), the Ministry of Health Science and technology industry special fund (No.201302002), the National Natural Science of Foundation of China (NSFC, No. 81101018), and Changzhou Science and Technology Application Project (Nos. CJ20112009, CJ20130026). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.