scholarly journals Brief Report: Preferred Processing of Social Stimuli in Autism: A Perception Task

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Meermeier ◽  
M. Jording ◽  
Y. Alayoubi ◽  
David H. V. Vogel ◽  
K. Vogeley ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Exploratory Analysis ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Social Stimuli ◽  
Future Studies ◽  
Perception Task ◽  
Social Images

AbstractIn this study we investigate whether persons with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) perceive social images differently than control participants (CON) in a graded perception task in which stimuli emerged from noise before dissipating into noise again. We presented either social stimuli (humans) or non-social stimuli (objects or animals). ASD were slower to recognize images during their emergence, but as fast as CON when indicating the dissipation of the image irrespective of its content. Social stimuli were recognized faster and remained discernable longer in both diagnostic groups. Thus, ASD participants show a largely intact preference for the processing of social images. An exploratory analysis of response subsets reveals subtle differences between groups that could be investigated in future studies.

scholarly journals Social visual attentional engagement and memory in Phelan-McDermid syndrome and autism spectrum disorder: a pilot eye tracking study

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sylvia B. Guillory ◽  
Victoria Z. Baskett ◽  
Hannah E. Grosman ◽  
Christopher S. McLaughlin ◽  
Emily L. Isenstein ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Recognition Memory ◽  
Eye Tracking ◽  
Genetic Disorder ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Attention And Memory ◽  
Social Stimuli ◽  
Developmental Quotient ◽  
Social Images

Abstract Background The current study used eye tracking to investigate attention and recognition memory in Phelan-McDermid syndrome (PMS), a rare genetic disorder characterized by intellectual disability, motor delays, and a high likelihood of comorbid autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Social deficits represent a core feature of ASD, including decreased propensity to orient to or show preference for social stimuli. Methods We used a visual paired-comparison task with both social and non-social images, assessing looking behavior to a novel image versus a previously viewed familiar image to characterize social attention and recognition memory in PMS (n = 22), idiopathic ASD (iASD, n = 38), and typically developing (TD) controls (n = 26). The idiopathic ASD cohort was divided into subgroups with intellectual disabilities (ID; developmental quotient < 70) and without (developmental quotient > 70) and the PMS group into those with and without a co-morbid ASD diagnosis. Results On measures of attention, the PMS group with a comorbid ASD diagnosis spent less time viewing the social images compared to non-social images; the rate of looking back and forth between images was lowest in the iASD with ID group. Furthermore, while all groups demonstrated intact recognition memory when novel non-social stimuli were initially presented (pre-switch), participants with PMS showed no preference during the post-switch memory presentation. In iASD, the group without ID, but not the group with ID, showed a novelty preference for social stimuli. Across indices, individuals with PMS and ASD performed more similarly to PMS without ASD and less similarly to the iASD group. Conclusion These findings demonstrate further evidence of differences in attention and memory for social stimuli in ASD and provide contrasts between iASD and PMS.

scholarly journals Social Attention Deficits in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder: Task Dependence of Objects vs. Faces Observation Bias

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susana Mouga ◽  
João Castelhano ◽  
Cátia Café ◽  
Daniela Sousa ◽  
Frederico Duque ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Social Attention ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Attention Deficits ◽  
Social Stimuli ◽  
Task Dependence ◽  
Observation Bias ◽  
Autism Diagnostic Observation

Social attention deficits represent a central impairment of patients suffering from autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but the nature of such deficits remains controversial. We compared visual attention regarding social (faces) vs. non-social stimuli (objects), in an ecological diagnostic context, in 46 children and adolescents divided in two groups: ASD (N = 23) and typical neurodevelopment (TD) (N = 23), matched for chronological age and intellectual performance. Eye-tracking measures of visual scanning, while exploring and describing scenes from three different tasks from the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS), were analyzed: “Description of a Picture,” “Cartoons,” and “Telling a Story from a Book.” Our analyses revealed a three-way interaction between Group, Task, and Social vs. Object Stimuli. We found a striking main effect of group and a task dependence of attentional allocation: while the TD attended first and longer to faces, ASD participants became similar to TD when they were asked to look at pictures while telling a story. Our results suggest that social attention allocation is task dependent, raising the question whether spontaneous attention deficits can be rescued by guiding goal-directed actions.

scholarly journals Vocal markers of Autism Spectrum Disorder: assessing the generalizability of machine learning models

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Astrid Rybner ◽  
Emil Trenckner Jessen ◽  
Marie Damsgaard Mortensen ◽  
Stine Nyhus Larsen ◽  
Ruth Grossman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Model Performance ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Future Studies ◽  
Out Of Sample ◽  
Biobehavioral Markers ◽  
Similar Task ◽  
Machine Learning Models

Background: Machine learning (ML) approaches show increasing promise to identify vocal markers of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Nonetheless, it is unclear to what extent such markers generalize to new speech samples collected in diverse settings such as using a different speech task or a different language. Aim: In this paper, we systematically assess the generalizability of ML findings across a variety of contexts. Methods: We re-train a promising published ML model of vocal markers of ASD on novel cross-linguistic datasets following a rigorous pipeline to minimize overfitting, including cross-validated training and ensemble models. We test the generalizability of the models by testing them on i) different participants from the same study, performing the same task; ii) the same participants, performing a different (but similar) task; iii) a different study with participants speaking a different language, performing the same type of task. Results: While model performance is similar to previously published findings when trained and tested on data from the same study (out-of-sample performance), there is considerable variance between studies. Crucially, the models do not generalize well to new similar tasks and not at all to new languages. The ML pipeline is openly shared. Conclusion: Generalizability of ML models of vocal markers - and more generally biobehavioral markers - of ASD is an issue. We outline three recommendations researchers could take in order to be more explicit about generalizability and improve it in future studies.

scholarly journals Adaptation to Vocal Expressions and Phonemes Is Intact in Autism Spectrum Disorder

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 372-381
Author(s):  
Patricia E. G. Bestelmeyer ◽  
Bethan Williams ◽  
Jennifer J. Lawton ◽  
Maria-Elena Stefanou ◽  
Kami Koldewyn ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Social Stimuli ◽  
Adaptation Mechanism ◽  
Identity Recognition ◽  
Children With Asd ◽  
The Social ◽  
Vocal Expressions

Several recent studies have demonstrated reduced visual aftereffects, particularly to social stimuli, in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This putative impairment of the adaptive mechanism in ASD has been put forward as a possible explanation for some of the core social problems experienced by children with ASD (e.g., facial emotion or identity recognition). We addressed this claim in children with ASD and typically developing children by using an established methodology and morphed auditory stimulus set for eliciting robust aftereffects to vocal expressions and phonemes. Although children with ASD were significantly worse at categorizing the vocal expressions compared with the control stimuli (phoneme categorization), aftereffect sizes in both tasks were identical in the two participant groups. Our finding suggests that the adaptation mechanism is not universally impaired in ASD and is therefore not an explanation for the social perception difficulties in ASD.

scholarly journals Children with autism spectrum disorder show reduced adaptation to number

2015 ◽  
Vol 112 (25) ◽  
pp. 7868-7872 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Turi ◽  
David C. Burr ◽  
Roberta Igliozzi ◽  
David Aagten-Murphy ◽  
Filippo Muratori ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Strong Support ◽  
Children With Autism ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Social Stimuli ◽  
Numerosity Discrimination ◽  
Facial Identity ◽  
Large Numbers

Autism is known to be associated with major perceptual atypicalities. We have recently proposed a general model to account for these atypicalities in Bayesian terms, suggesting that autistic individuals underuse predictive information or priors. We tested this idea by measuring adaptation to numerosity stimuli in children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). After exposure to large numbers of items, stimuli with fewer items appear to be less numerous (and vice versa). We found that children with ASD adapted much less to numerosity than typically developing children, although their precision for numerosity discrimination was similar to that of the typical group. This result reinforces recent findings showing reduced adaptation to facial identity in ASD and goes on to show that reduced adaptation is not unique to faces (social stimuli with special significance in autism), but occurs more generally, for both parietal and temporal functions, probably reflecting inefficiencies in the adaptive interpretation of sensory signals. These results provide strong support for the Bayesian theories of autism.

scholarly journals Context Modulates Attention to Faces in Dynamic Social Scenes in Children and Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dzmitry A. Kaliukhovich ◽  
Nikolay V. Manyakov ◽  
Abigail Bangerter ◽  
Gahan Pandina
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Visual Attention ◽  
Eye Tracking ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Social Orientation ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Social Stimuli ◽  
Adults With Autism ◽  
Social Scenes

AbstractIndividuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have been found to view social scenes differently compared to typically developing (TD) peers, but results can vary depending on context and age. We used eye-tracking in children and adults (age 6–63) to assess allocation of visual attention in a dynamic social orientation paradigm previously used only in younger children. The ASD group (n = 94) looked less at the actor’s face compared to TD (n = 38) when they were engaged in activity (mean percentage of looking time, ASD = 30.7% vs TD = 34.9%; Cohen’s d = 0.56; p value < 0.03) or looking at a moving toy (24.5% vs 33.2%; d = 0.65; p value < 0.001). Findings indicate that there are qualitative differences in allocation of visual attention to social stimuli across ages in ASD.ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02668991.

Scanpath similarity measure reveals not only a decreased social preference, but also an increased nonsocial preference in individuals with autism

Autism ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 374-386
Author(s):  
Magdalena Ewa Król ◽  
Michał Król
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Social Preference ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Natural Scenes ◽  
Semantic Features ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Autism Spectrum Disorder Group ◽  
Social Images

We compared scanpath similarity in response to repeated presentations of social and nonsocial images representing natural scenes in a sample of 30 participants with autism spectrum disorder and 32 matched typically developing individuals. We used scanpath similarity (calculated using ScanMatch) as a novel measure of attentional bias or preference, which constrains eye-movement patterns by directing attention to specific visual or semantic features of the image. We found that, compared with the control group, scanpath similarity of participants with autism was significantly higher in response to nonsocial images, and significantly lower in response to social images. Moreover, scanpaths of participants with autism were more similar to scanpaths of other participants with autism in response to nonsocial images, and less similar in response to social images. Finally, we also found that in response to nonsocial images, scanpath similarity of participants with autism did not decline with stimulus repetition to the same extent as in the control group, which suggests more perseverative attention in the autism spectrum disorder group. These results show a preferential fixation on certain elements of social stimuli in typically developing individuals compared with individuals with autism, and on certain elements of nonsocial stimuli in the autism spectrum disorder group, compared with the typically developing group.

Dysfunctional perceptual antecedent can justify the social orienting deficit in autism spectrum disorder: an eye-tracking study

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 289-302
Author(s):  
Cristina Carrozza ◽  
Rosa Angela Fabio
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Visual Attention ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Geometric Complexity ◽  
Social Stimuli ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Geometric Figures ◽  
Early Stages

Purpose Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) show reduced attention to social stimuli. The reasons for these impairments are still being debated by researchers. The aim of this study is to analyse if reduced attention towards social stimuli is determined by initial underlying difficulties in the control of visual attention. Among the variables that could produce these difficulties, the authors considered geometric complexity and typology of geometric figures. Design/methodology/approach To test this hypothesis, in this paper, an eye-tracker paradigm was used for assessing visual exploration and recognition memory towards geometric figures (curved vs rectilinear) with two levels of geometric complexity (low and high) in 17 children with ASD matched with 17 children with typical development (TD). Findings The results showed that the ASD group seemed indifferent to both the geometric complexity and the typology of figures (curved and rectilinear), whereas the TD group showed higher performances with highly complex and curved geometric figures than with low complex and rectilinear geometric figures. Research limitations/implications Because of the chosen research approach, the research results may lack generalizability. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to test the proposed hypotheses further. Practical implications This paper includes implications upon the presence of an unspecified visual attention deficit that is present from the early stages of the processing of stimuli. Social implications The understanding of this deficit from the early stages of the processing of stimuli can help educators to intervene at an early stage when disturbances in social relationships are starting. Originality/value This study contributes to understanding the presence of dysfunctional perceptual antecedents that could determine general difficulties in paying attention to social stimuli in ASD subjects.

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