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Participants with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) (n = 121, mean [SD] age: 14.6 [8.0] years) and typically developing (TD) controls (n = 40, 16.4 [13.3] years) were presented with a series of videos representing biological motion on one side of a computer monitor screen and non-biological motion on the other, while their eye movements were recorded. As predicted, participants with ASD spent less overall time looking at presented stimuli than TD participants (P < 10 -3 ) and showed less preference for biological motion (P < 10 -5 ). Participants with ASD also had greater average latencies than TD participants of the first fixation on both biological (P < 0.01) and non-biological motion (P < 0.02). Findings suggest that individuals with ASD differ from TD individuals on multiple properties of eye movements and biological motion preference.

Background: Diminished visual monitoring of faces and activities of others is an early feature of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). It is uncertain whether deficits in activity monitoring, identified using a homogeneous set of stimuli, persist throughout the lifespan in ASD, and thus, whether they could serve as a biological indicator ("biomarker") of ASD. We investigated differences in visual attention during activity monitoring in children and adult participants with autism compared to a control group of participants without autism., Methods: Eye movements of participants with autism (n = 122; mean age [SD] = 14.5 [8.0] years) and typically developing (TD) controls (n = 40, age = 16.4 [13.3] years) were recorded while they viewed a series of videos depicting two female actors conversing while interacting with their hands over a shared task. Actors either continuously focused their gaze on each other's face (mutual gaze) or on the shared activity area (shared focus). Mean percentage looking time was computed for the activity area, actors' heads, and their bodies., Results: Compared to TD participants, participants with ASD looked longer at the activity area (mean % looking time: 58.5% vs. 53.8%, p < 0.005) but less at the heads (15.2% vs. 23.7%, p < 0.0001). Additionally, within-group differences in looking time were observed between the mutual gaze and shared focus conditions in both participants without ASD (activity: Δ = - 6.4%, p < 0.004; heads: Δ = + 3.5%, p < 0.02) and participants with ASD (bodies: Δ = + 1.6%, p < 0.002)., Limitations: The TD participants were not as well characterized as the participants with ASD. Inclusion criteria regarding the cognitive ability [intelligence quotient (IQ) > 60] limited the ability to include individuals with substantial intellectual disability., Conclusions: Differences in attention to faces could constitute a feature discriminative between individuals with and without ASD across the lifespan, whereas between-group differences in looking at activities may shift with development. These findings may have applications in the search for underlying biological indicators specific to ASD. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov identifier NCT02668991.

Eye-tracking studies have demonstrated that individuals with autism spectrum disorder sometimes show differences in attention and gaze patterns. This includes preference for certain nonsocial objects, heightened attention to detail, and more difficulty with attention shifting and disengagement, which may be associated with restricted and repetitive behaviors. This study utilized a visual exploration task and replicates findings of reduced number of objects explored and increased fixation duration on high autism interest objects in a large sample of individuals with autism spectrum disorder (n = 129, age 6-54 years) in comparison with a typically developing group. These findings correlated with parent-reported repetitive behaviors. Additionally, we applied recurrent quantification analysis to enable identification of new eye-tracking features, which accounted for temporal and spatial differences in viewing patterns. These new features were found to discriminate between autism spectrum disorder and typically developing groups and were correlated with parent-reported repetitive behaviors. Original and novel eye-tracking features identified by recurrent quantification analysis differed in their relationships to reported behaviors and were dependent on age. Trial Registration: NCT02299700. Autism Research 2018, 11: 1554-1566. © 2018 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. LAY SUMMARY: Using eye-tracking technology and a visual exploration task, we showed that people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) spend more time looking at particular kinds of objects, like trains and clocks, and look at fewer objects overall than people without ASD. Where people look and the order in which they look at objects were related to the restricted and repetitive behaviors reported by parents. Eye-tracking may be a useful addition to parent reports for measuring changes in behavior in individuals with ASD., (© 2018 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)