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

John R. Pruett, Angela Lamacchia, Sarah Hoertel, Emma Squire, Kelly McVey, Richard D. Todd, John N. Constantino, Steven E. Petersen

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

46 Scopus citations

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.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)715-731
Number of pages17
JournalJournal of autism and developmental disorders
Volume41
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 2011

Keywords

  • Arrow
  • Box
  • Child
  • Gaze
  • Oculomotor
  • Vision

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