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

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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