Eye-tracking study on circumscribed interest in preschool-aged children with autism spectrum disorder / 中华行为医学与脑科学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To explore the characteristics of eye tracking movement on circumscribed interests in preschool children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), providing some reference for behavior correction and rehabilitation training.Methods:Fifty ASD children and fifty-two age-matched typically developing children(TDC) were investigated by the childhood autism rating scale(CARS), the autism diagnostic observation schedule(ADOS), the autism diagnostic interview-revised (ADI-R) and Gesell Developmental Schedule, (GDS). Eye movement during the visual search task was captured by the Tobii Pro X3-120 eye tracker.All data were analyzed by the IBM SPSS Statistics 20.0.Eye movement patterns were compared between TDC and ASD children using the independent-sample t test, and the correlations were then analyzed between abnormal eye movement characteristics and their core syndrome. Results:The total scores of CARS, ADOS and ADI-R in ASD group were 34.13±4.59, 14.44±2.59 and 39.91±12.11 respectively.During passive viewing of complex non-social picture arrays, ASD and TDC group explored total number of images were 9.28±2.72 and 12.67±2.45.The fixation time per image explored in ASD and TDC group were (0.67±0.37)ms and (0.54±0.15)ms.Moreover, the number of discrete fixations per image explored in ASD and TDC group was 2.80±1.00 and 2.48±0.48.Compared with the TDC group, ASD children demonstrated circumscribed attention ( t=6.610, P<0.01) with more perseveration ( t=-2.363, P=0.021) and detail-orientation ( t=-2.360, P=0.021). Exploration was negatively correlated with the total score of ADOS ( r=-0.480, P<0.01), CARS ( r=-0.487, P<0.01), communication score of ADOS( r=-0.290, P=0.041), social score of ADOS( r=-0.491, P<0.01), game score of ADOS( r=-0.397, P=0.004)and communication score of ADI-R( r=-0.331, P=0.025)in the ASD group. Conclusion:Compared with TDC, the eye movement pattern shows the circumscribed interests of ASD children, who not only explore fewer objects but also demonstrate circumscribed attention with more perseveration and detail-orientation.Moreover, the more severe the symptoms of ASD children, the fewer objects the children explore and the more stereotyped the circumscribed interest.