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IntroductionAccurate prevalence estimates for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are fundamental to adequately program medical and educational resources for children. However, estimates vary globally and across Europe, and it is therefore wise to conduct epidemiological studies in defined geo-cultural contexts.MethodsWe used a population screening approach to estimate the prevalence of ASD in the Centro region of Portugal, using a harmonized protocol as part of the Autism Spectrum Disorders in the European Union (ASDEU) project.ResultsThe overall prevalence was estimated at 0.5% (95% CI 0.3–0.7), higher in schools with Autism Units (3.3%, 95%CI 2.7–3.9) than in regular schools (0.3%, 95% CI 0.1–0.5) or schools with Multiple Disability Units (0.3%, 95% CI 0.04–0.6).DiscussionThe results indicate that the diagnosis of ASD is followed by the most effective educational policies in Centro Region. The variability in prevalence estimates across the different regions from the ASDEU project, and globally, is discussed.

Social attention deficits represent a central impairment of patients suffering from autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but the nature of such deficits remains controversial. We compared visual attention regarding social (faces) vs. non-social stimuli (objects), in an ecological diagnostic context, in 46 children and adolescents divided in two groups: ASD (N = 23) and typical neurodevelopment (TD) (N = 23), matched for chronological age and intellectual performance. Eye-tracking measures of visual scanning, while exploring and describing scenes from three different tasks from the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS), were analyzed: “Description of a Picture,” “Cartoons,” and “Telling a Story from a Book.” Our analyses revealed a three-way interaction between Group, Task, and Social vs. Object Stimuli. We found a striking main effect of group and a task dependence of attentional allocation: while the TD attended first and longer to faces, ASD participants became similar to TD when they were asked to look at pictures while telling a story. Our results suggest that social attention allocation is task dependent, raising the question whether spontaneous attention deficits can be rescued by guiding goal-directed actions.