Eye tracking studies related to social attention deficits in autism spectrum disorders / 中华行为医学与脑科学杂志

ABSTRACT

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a group of neurodevelopmental disorders.Impaired social functioning is a core characteristic of individuals with ASD.Social attention deficits are important manifestation of their impaired social functioning.And it mainly reflected in the gaze on faces and social interactions.Eye movement technology is an objective and sensitive non-invasive measurement tool.Its application makes the measurement of individual core characteristics of ASD more accurate and objective.A review of recent studies revealed that the type of eye-movement stimuli for social attention in patients with AD gradually shifted from face image processing to social interaction scenes, and developed from static presentation to dynamic presentation.Dimensional embodiment of the progress of eye-movement studies of social attention in individuals with ASD.These studies suggest that individuals with ASD are less likely to gaze at the face region and the eye region of the face.More studies are currently using eye-tracking technology, and the analysis of emotional face gaze reveals that, the reduction in eye gaze in individuals with ASD is due to the discomfort associated with threatening faces.These findings validate the " gaze aversion" hypothesis regarding impaired social attention in individuals with ASD.Related neural mechanism studies have found a general lack of attention to social cues in the environment in individuals with ASD.Brain regions such as the amygdala, cingulate gyrus, superior temporal sulcus and anterior insula are associated with social attention in individuals with ASD.Especially with the superior temporal sulcus, the dorsal and ventral sides of the anterior insula, and so on.Future research should explore the cognitive neural mechanisms of social attention deficits in ASD, and the application of advanced information technology, such as eye-tracking technology, in the rehabilitation of patients with ASD.