Abstract
Background
Social attention affords learning opportunities across development and may contribute to individual differences in developmental trajectories, such as between male and female individuals, and in neurodevelopmental conditions, such as autism.
Methods
Using eye-tracking, we measured social attention in a large cohort of autistic (n=123) and nonautistic females (n=107), and autistic (n=330) and nonautistic males (n=204), aged 6–30 years. Using mixed Growth Curve Analysis, we modelled sex and diagnostic effects on the temporal dynamics of proportional looking time to three types of social stimuli (lean-static, naturalistic-static, and naturalistic-dynamic) and examined the link between individual differences and dimensional social and nonsocial autistic traits in autistic females and males.
Results
In the lean-static stimulus, average face-looking was higher in females than in males of both autistic and nonautistic groups. Differences in the dynamic pattern of face-looking were seen in autistic vs. nonautistic females, but not males, with face-looking peaking later in the trial in autistic females. In the naturalistic-dynamic stimulus, average face-looking was higher in females than in males of both groups; changes in the dynamic pattern of face looking were seen in autistic vs. nonautistic males, but not in females, with a steeper peak in nonautistic males. Lower average face-looking was associated with higher observer-measured autistic characteristics in autistic females, but not in males.
Conclusions
Overall, we found stronger social attention in females to a similar degree in both autistic and nonautistic groups. Nonetheless, the dynamic profiles of social attention differed in different ways in autistic females and males compared to their nonautistic peers, and autistic traits predicted trends of average face-looking in autistic females. These findings support the role of social attention in the emergence of sex-related differences in autistic characteristics, suggesting an avenue to phenotypic stratification.
Summary
Recent reports highlight autistic females' unique patterns of behaviour related to individual differences & environmental pressures. With this work, the analysed behaviour is the time spent observing faces of people (i.e., social attention), measured with eye-tracking.
Seminal work looked at average group-differences in eye-tracking measures; what they did is to obtain one score for each participant representing their observational behaviour overall. But the session may last several seconds and the time spent observing faces naturally varies. This paper models the variations of the time spent observing faces. It’s like looking at the underlying process subtending overall differences spotted by past work. There is no “looking less/more at faces”", just differently - and this can guide us understanding people better.
The paper describes many patterns, and one shows that autistic females show their own age-related change of face-looking over time that may indicate that there is a sensitive time window of learning (something related to faces) that does not overlap with non-autistic females. From the papers' conclusion: “These observations suggest that social attention may (…) grant occasions for learning (…): it may provide (…) with a tool for cultivating rewarding and desired social interactions, and/or avoiding unpleasant and stressful ones”.
Teresa Del Bianco
Postdoctoral Researcher
Scientist researching brain and child development and neurodiversity.