Abstract
Visual exploration paradigms involving object arrays have been used to examine salience of social stimuli such as faces in ASD. Recent work suggests performance on these paradigms may associate with clinical features of ASD. We evaluate metrics from a visual exploration paradigm in 4-to-11-year-old children with ASD (n = 23; 18 males) and typical development (TD; n = 23; 13 males). Presented with arrays containing faces and nonsocial stimuli, children with ASD looked less at (p = 0.002) and showed fewer fixations to (p = 0.022) faces than TD children, and spent less time looking at each object on average (p = 0.004). Attention to the screen and faces correlated positively with social and cognitive skills in the ASD group (ps < .05). This work furthers our understanding of objective measures of visual exploration in ASD and its potential for quantifying features of ASD.
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Acknowledgments
Additional important contributions were provided by members of the ABC-CT consortium including: Heather Borland, Cynthia Brandt, Shou An Chang, Scott Compton, Susan Faja, Alyssa Gateman, Simone Hasselmo, Bailey Heit, Gerhard Helleman, Julie Holub, Toni Howell, Ann Harris, Alexander Hoslet, Kathryn Hutchins, Kelsey Jackson Dommer, Lily Katsovitch, Minah Kim, April Levin, Beibin Li, Samantha Major, Samuel Marsan, Andriana S. Méndez Leal, Lisa Nanamaker, Leon Rozenblit, Maura Sabatos-DeVito, Megha Santhosh, Damla Senturk, Laura Simone, Dylan Stahl, Cindy Voghell, Quan Wang, and Andrew Yuan.
Funding
Support was provided by the U19 Consortium on Biomarker and Outcome Measures of Socia Impairment for use in Clinical Trials in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ABC-CT) NIMH U19 MH108206 (PI: McPartland) and by NIMH K01 MH104739 (PI: Shic).
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Study Conceptualization: FS, AN, RB, GD, JD, SSJ, JM, CAN, MM, CS, SJW, SPJ. Data Curation: FS, AN, EB, JD, HS, CS, SJW. Formal Analyses: FS, TT, AN, EB, MX, CS, SJW. Funding Acquisition: FS, AN, RB, GD, JD, SSJ, JM, CAN, MM, CS, SJW, SPJ. Study Investigation: FS, TT, AN, EB, RB, GD, JD, SF, SSJ, JM, CAN, MM, HS, CS, SJW, SPJ. Study Methodology: FS, AN, EB, RB, GD, SF, SSJ, JM, CAN, MM, HS, CS, SJW, SPJ. Project Administration: FS, AN, EB, RB, GD, JD, SF, SSJ, JM, CAN, MM, HS, CS, SJW, SPJ. Provision of Resources: FS, AN, RB, GD, JD, SF, SSJ, JM, CAN, HS, CS, SJW, SPJ. Software: FS, AN, EB, JD, CS, SJW. Supervision: FS, AN, EB, RB, GD, JD, SF, SSJ, JM, CAN, HS, CS, SJW, SPJ. Validation: FS, TT, AN, EB, MX, JD, SF, SJW. Visualization: FS, TT, AN, EB, MX. All authors were involved in the writing and approval of this manuscript.
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Frederick Shic consults for Roche Pharmaceutical Company, Janssen Research and Development, BioStream LLC, and BlackThorn Therapeutics. James C. McPartland consults with Customer Value Partners, Bridgebio, Determined Health, and BlackThorn Therapeutics, has received research funding from Janssen Research and Development, serves on the Scientific Advisory Boards of Pastorus and Modern Clinics, and receives royalties from Guilford Press, Lambert, and Springer. Sara J. Webb consults for Janssen Research and Development. Dr. Dawson is on the Scientific Advisory Boards of Janssen Research and Development, Akili Interactive, Inc, LabCorp, Inc, Roche Pharmaceutical Company, and Tris Pharma, and is a consultant to Apple, Gerson Lehrman Group, Guidepoint Global, Inc, and is CEO of DASIO, LLC. Dr. Dawson has stock interests in Neuvana, Inc. The authors Tawny Tsang, Adam Naples, Erin Barney, Minhang Xie, Raphael Bernier, James Dziura, Susan Faja, Shafli Jeste, Charles A. Nelson, Michael Murias, Helen Seow, Catherine Sugar, and Scott P. Johnson declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. No company contributed to funding of this study. A representative from Janssen served on the FNIH Biomarkers Consortium Project Team and provided in kind support in terms of sharing experiences and preliminary results of the JAKE study.
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Tsang, T., Naples, A.J., Barney, E.C. et al. Attention Allocation During Exploration of Visual Arrays in ASD: Results from the ABC-CT Feasibility Study. J Autism Dev Disord 53, 3220–3229 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-022-05569-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-022-05569-0