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. 2024 Mar 30;21(4):421.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph21040421.

Attention toward Social and Non-Social Stimuli in Preschool Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Paired Preference Eye-Tracking Study

Sara Congiu  1 , Giuseppe Doneddu  2 , Roberta Fadda  1
Affiliations

Attention toward Social and Non-Social Stimuli in Preschool Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Paired Preference Eye-Tracking Study

Sara Congiu et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

Different dimensions of visual attention to social (human faces) and non-social stimuli (objects) were assessed in 19 preschool children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and 19 typically developing (TD) age, gender, and IQ-matched controls through an original paired preference eye-tracking paradigm. The present study found a significantly reduced attentional bias toward human faces in children with ASD compared to TD controls. The analysis of the total fixation time showed a significantly reduced preference for faces in children with ASD compared to TD children. Moreover, while TD children showed a significant preference for the face over the object, children in the ASD group observed the two paired pictures for a similar amount of time, thus showing no preference. Besides, children with ASD paid significantly more sustained attention to the objects than TD children. Children in the TD group paid greater sustained attention to the faces over the objects, while children in the ASD group did not differentiate between objects and faces. Finally, an age effect was found in ASD, as younger children in the group tended to prefer objects and to show more sustained attention towards them. Overall, these findings add to the literature on anomalies in attention toward social and non-social stimuli in young children with ASD compared to their TD counterparts. These results are discussed in the light of previous studies and suggest possible directions for future research.

Keywords: autism spectrum disorder; eye-tracking; face processing; preschool children; social attention; social stimuli; visual preference.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Example of stimulus image.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Mean First Fixation, * p < 0.05. Error bars depict a 95% confidence interval.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Mean proportion of looking time towards the stimuli. * p < 0.05. Error bars depict a 95% confidence interval.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Mean proportion of visit duration towards the stimuli. * p < 0.05. Error bars depict a 95% confidence interval.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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This research received no external funding.