Eye-Tracking Studies of Social Visual Pursuit in Autism

描述（由申请人提供）：本R01侧重于自发视觉注视和视觉扫描模式是自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）患者社交能力水平的预测因子的假设。这一假设起源于一项研究，该研究使用眼动追踪技术来测量具有认知能力的自闭症青少年和成年人观看自然主义社交场景时的视觉注视时间。与年龄、性别和语言智商相匹配的对照组相比，自闭症患者花在观察嘴部、身体和物体区域上的时间要长2倍。然而，自闭症患者花在看眼睛上的时间要少2分之1。嘴和物体上的注视时间是日常社会适应水平和自闭症社会适应水平的强有力的预测因子，而眼睛上的注视时间与这些社会能力的结果指标关系不大。对嘴的注视增加预示着更多的社会能力，而对物体的注视增加则预示着更少的社会能力。视觉扫描模式的研究似乎在自闭症患者和对照组之间产生了更大的差异。我们请求5年的支持，以在更广泛的自闭症表现，年龄和认知水平的背景下检查这一假设。我们建议对96名ASD参与者和96名年龄和语言智商匹配的5至12岁的对照者进行眼动追踪。在具体目标#1中，我们将研究视觉注视模式与年龄、言语智商和社会能力结果指标之间的关系，其中包括社会障碍、社会适应和社会认知的标准化指标。在具体目标#2中，我们将研究视觉扫描模式与社会能力以及年龄和语言智商的相同结果测量之间的关系。除了提供一个独特的窗口，让自闭症个体在面对社会情境时寻找意义，我们的首要目标是将眼动追踪范式发展成为一个基于实验室的社交障碍量化器，这是当前自闭症不同表现的遗传研究的重要需求。拟议中的R01与其他正在进行的眼动跟踪研究协同工作，包括对有自闭症风险的幼儿的研究和对患有近中额叶边缘消融的猴子的研究。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This R01 focuses on the hypothesis that spontaneous visual fixation and visual scanning patterns are predictors of level of social competence in individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). This hypothesis originated from research using eye-tracking technology to measure visual fixation time while cognitively-able adolescents and adults with autism watched naturalistic social scenes. Time spent looking at mouth, body, and object regions was 2¿ times greater in individuals with autism relative to age-, sex-, and verbal IQ-matched controls. Time spent looking at the eyes, however, was 2¿ times less in individuals with autism. Fixation time on mouths and objects was a strong predictor of level of daily social adjustment and level of autistic social symptomatology, while fixation time on eyes showed little relation to these outcome measures of social competence. Increased fixation on mouths predicted more social competence, whereas increased fixation on objects predicted less. Work on visual scanning patterns seems to yield even greater differences between the individuals with autism and controls. We request 5 years of support to examine this hypothesis in the context of a wider spectrum of autism manifestations, age, and cognitive levels. We propose to complete eye-tracking procedures for 96 participants with ASD and 96 age- and verbal IQ-matched controls aged 5 to 12 years. In specific aim #1 we will study the relationship between visual fixation patterns and age, verbal IQ, and outcome measures of social competence, which include standardized measures of social impairment, social adjustment, and social cognition. In specific aim #2 we will examine the relationship between visual scanning patterns and the same outcome measures of social competence, as well as age and verbal IQ. Apart from providing a unique window into the ways in which individuals with autism search for meaning when confronted with social situations, our overarching goal is to develop the eye-tracking paradigm into a laboratory-based quantifier of social disability, which is an important need in current genetic research of the varying manifestations of autism. The proposed R01 works synergistically with other ongoing eye-tracking research including studies of toddlers at risk of having autism and studies of monkeys with mesiofrontal-limbic ablations.