Development of vision and attention in typical and ASD individuals

项目总结(见说明)： 视觉注意是一种普遍的信息收集机制，它是认知、情感和知觉发展的核心。视觉场景中充斥着大量的信息，而这些信息是无法同时管理的。视觉注意的作用是在这样的场景中组织眼睛凝视模式，从而支持信息收集、感知和学习的第一步。虽然视觉注意发展的时机已经被理解，但其发展背后的解释变量并不是很清楚。这个项目的目的是描述影响典型和非典型视觉注意的变量。以往关于视觉注意和计算视觉的发现导致了一种假设，即视觉加工的完整性是视觉注意发展的基础。自闭症谱系障碍(ASD)患者及其高危婴儿兄弟姐妹表现出不典型的视觉和注意力能力。我们假设ASD患者视觉注意的不同是非典型视觉加工的结果。这项提议将在这些技能出现时在婴儿期检验这一假设，然后随着这些技能的不断完善，从童年到成年验证这一假设。我们将使用标准的注意力和视觉功能任务，结合行为眼球跟踪和神经成像方法来测试我们的预测。这项工作有可能为理解ASD潜在的行为和神经回路发育中的关键和基础性干扰提供基础。

PROJECT SUMMARY (See instructions): Visual attention is a general information gathering mechanism that is central to cognitive, emotional, and perceptual development. Visual scenes are cluttered with more information than can be managed at once. The role of visual attention is to organize eye gaze patterns in such scenes, thereby supporting the first step in information gathering, perception, and learning. Although the timing of the development of visual attention is understood, the explanatory variables that underlie its development are not well known. This project aims to characterize the variables that contribute to typical and atypical visual attention. Previous findings related to visual attention and computational vision lead to the hypothesis that integrity of visual processing is fundamental to the development of visual attention. Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and their at-risk infant siblings show both atypical visual and attentional abilities. We hypothesize that differences in visual attention in ASD are a result of atypical visual processing. This proposal will test this hypothesis in infancy when these skills emerge, and then from childhood through adulthood as these skills continue to refine. We will test our predictions using standard attention and visual function tasks, in concert with behavioral eye-tracking and neuroimaging methods. This work has the potential to provide a foundation for understanding what may be a pivotal and foundational disruption in behavioral and neural circuitry development underlying ASD.