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Atypical monitoring and responsiveness to goal-directed gaze in autism spectrum disorder
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Atypical monitoring and responsiveness to goal-directed gaze in autism spectrum disorder

Giacomo Vivanti, David Trembath and Cheryl Dissanayake
Experimental brain research, v 232(2), pp 695-701
Feb 2014
PMID: 24292493

Abstract

Adult Analysis of Variance Attention - physiology Case-Control Studies Child Development Disorders, Pervasive - physiopathology Cues Female Fixation, Ocular - physiology Goals Humans Male Middle Aged Movement Photic Stimulation Residence Characteristics Surveys and Questionnaires
We hypothesized that difficulty in understanding the goals of others' actions in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) might be linked to a diminished attention and responsivity to relevant social cues. Using an eye-tracking paradigm, we investigated how 24 children with ASD and 24 matched children without ASD responded to the observation of uncompleted actions without a clear target (neutral condition) versus a condition in which the actor's gaze direction indicated the target of the actions (head-turning condition). Children without ASD significantly increased their attention to the actor's face and to the action's target in the head-turning condition compared to the neutral condition, while this was not the case in the ASD group. Overall, our findings suggest a diminished monitoring and responsivity to social cues signalling goal-directedness, which might impact on the ability to understand other's action goals in young children with ASD.

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Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
Web of Science research areas
Neurosciences
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