Reduced Alternating Gaze During Social Interaction in Infancy is Associated with Elevated Symptoms of Autism in Toddlerhood

In typical development, infants often alternate their gaze between their interaction partners and interesting stimuli, increasing the probability of joint attention toward surrounding objects and creating opportunities for communication and learning. Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have been found to engage less in behaviors that can initiate joint attention compared to typically developing children, but the role of such atypicalities in the development of ASD during infancy is not fully understood. Here, using eye tracking technology in a live setting, we show that 10-month-olds at high familial risk for ASD engage less in alternating gaze during interaction with an adult compared to low risk infants. These differences could not be explained by low general social preference or slow visual disengagement, as the groups performed similarly in these respects. We also found that less alternating gaze at 10 months was associated with more social ASD symptoms and less showing and pointing at 18 months. These relations were similar in both the high risk and the low risk groups, and remained when controlling for general social preference and disengagement latencies. This study shows that atypicalities in alternating gaze in infants at high risk for ASD emerge already during the first 10 months of life - a finding with theoretical as well as potential practical implications

Enhanced pupillary light reflex in infancy is associated with autism diagnosis in toddlerhood.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental condition affecting around 1% of the population. We previously discovered that infant siblings of children with ASD had stronger pupillary light reflexes compared to low-risk infants, a result which contrasts sharply with the weak pupillary light reflex typically seen in both children and adults with ASD. Here, we show that on average the relative constriction of the pupillary light reflex is larger in 9-10-month-old high risk infant siblings who receive an ASD diagnosis at 36 months, compared both to those who do not and to low-risk controls. We also found that the magnitude of the pupillary light reflex in infancy is associated with symptom severity at follow-up. This study indicates an important role of sensory atypicalities in the etiology of ASD, and suggests that pupillometry, if further developed and refined, could facilitate risk assessment in infants

A field test of computer-vision-based gaze estimation in psychology

Computer-vision-based gaze estimation refers to techniques that estimate gaze direction directly from video recordings of the eyes or face without the need for an eye tracker. Although many such methods exist, their validation is often found in the technical literature (e.g., computer science conference papers). We aimed to (1) identify which computer-vision-based gaze estimation methods are usable by the average researcher in fields such as psychology or education, and (2) evaluate these methods. We searched for methods that do not require calibration and have clear documentation. Two toolkits, OpenFace and OpenGaze, were found to fulfill these criteria. First, we present an experiment where adult participants fixated on nine stimulus points on a computer screen. We filmed their face with a camera and processed the recorded videos with OpenFace and OpenGaze. We conclude that OpenGaze is accurate and precise enough to be used in screen-based experiments with stimuli separated by at least 11 degrees of gaze angle. OpenFace was not sufficiently accurate for such situations but can potentially be used in sparser environments. We then examined whether OpenFace could be used with horizontally separated stimuli in a sparse environment with infant participants. We compared dwell measures based on OpenFace estimates to the same measures based on manual coding. We conclude that OpenFace gaze estimates may potentially be used with measures such as relative total dwell time to sparse, horizontally separated areas of interest, but should not be used to draw conclusions about measures such as dwell duration

Sex Differences in Social Attention in Infants at Risk for Autism

We studied visual attention to emotional faces in 10-month-old infant siblings of children with ASD (ASD-sibs; N = 70) and a siblings of typically developing children (N = 29) using static stimuli. Contrary to our predictions, we found no evidence for atypical gaze behavior in ASD-sibs when boys and girls were analyzed together. However, a sex difference was found in ASD-sibs' visual attention to the mouth. Male ASD-sibs looked more at the mouth across emotions compared to male controls and female ASD-sibs. In contrast, female ASD-sibs looked less at the mouth compared to female controls. These findings suggest that some aspects of early emerging atypical social attention in ASD-sibs may be sex specific

Development of the pupillary light reflex from 9 to 24 months: association with common ASD genetic liability and 3-year ASD diagnosis

Background: Although autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is heritable, the mechanisms through which genes contribute to symptom emergence remain unclear. Investigating candidate intermediate phenotypes such as the pupillary light reflex (PLR) prospectively from early in development could bridge genotype and behavioural phenotype. Methods: Using eye tracking, we longitudinally measured the PLR at 9, 14 and 24 months in a sample of infants (N = 264) enriched for a family history of ASD; 27 infants received an ASD diagnosis at 3 years. We examined the 9- to 24-month developmental trajectories of PLR constriction latency (onset; ms) and amplitude (%) and explored their relation to categorical 3-year ASD outcome, polygenic liability for ASD and dimensional 3-year social affect (SA) and repetitive/restrictive behaviour (RRB) traits. Polygenic scores for ASD (PGSASD) were calculated for 190 infants. Results: While infants showed a decrease in latency between 9 and 14 months, higher PGSASD was associated with a smaller decrease in latency in the first year (β = −.16, 95% CI = −0.31, −0.002); infants with later ASD showed a significantly steeper decrease in latency (a putative ‘catch-up’) between 14 and 24 months relative to those with other outcomes (typical: β = .54, 95% CI = 0.08, 0.99; other: β = .53, 95% CI = 0.02, 1.04). Latency development did not associate with later dimensional variation in ASD-related traits. In contrast, change in amplitude was not related to categorical ASD or genetics, but decreasing 9- to 14-month amplitude was associated with higher SA (β = .08, 95% CI = 0.01, 0.14) and RRB (β = .05, 95% CI = 0.004, 0.11) traits. Conclusions: These findings corroborate PLR development as possible intermediate phenotypes being linked to both genetic liability and phenotypic outcomes. Future work should incorporate alternative measures (e.g. functionally informed structural and genetic measures) to test whether distinct neural mechanisms underpin PLR alteration

Spotting Signs of Autism in 3-Year-Olds: Comparing Information from Parents and Preschool Staff

© 2018, The Author(s). Preschool informants may provide valuable information about symptoms of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in young children. We compared the diagnostic accuracy of ratings by preschool staff with those by parents of 3-year-old children using the Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment Preschool Forms. The sample consisted of 32 children at familial risk for ASD without diagnosis, 10 children at risk for ASD with diagnosis, and 14 low-risk typically developing controls. Preschool staff ratings were more accurate than parent ratings at differentiating children with and without ASD, and more closely associated with clinician-rated symptoms. These results point to the value of information from preschool informants in early detection and diagnostic assessments

Preference for biological motion is reduced in ASD: implications for clinical trials and the search for biomarkers.

BACKGROUND: The neurocognitive mechanisms underlying autism spectrum disorder (ASD) remain unclear. Progress has been largely hampered by small sample sizes, variable age ranges and resulting inconsistent findings. There is a pressing need for large definitive studies to delineate the nature and extent of key case/control differences to direct research towards fruitful areas for future investigation. Here we focus on perception of biological motion, a promising index of social brain function which may be altered in ASD. In a large sample ranging from childhood to adulthood, we assess whether biological motion preference differs in ASD compared to neurotypical participants (NT), how differences are modulated by age and sex and whether they are associated with dimensional variation in concurrent or later symptomatology. METHODS: Eye-tracking data were collected from 486 6-to-30-year-old autistic (N = 282) and non-autistic control (N = 204) participants whilst they viewed 28 trials pairing biological (BM) and control (non-biological, CTRL) motion. Preference for the biological motion stimulus was calculated as (1) proportion looking time difference (BM-CTRL) and (2) peak look duration difference (BM-CTRL). RESULTS: The ASD group showed a present but weaker preference for biological motion than the NT group. The nature of the control stimulus modulated preference for biological motion in both groups. Biological motion preference did not vary with age, gender, or concurrent or prospective social communicative skill within the ASD group, although a lack of clear preference for either stimulus was associated with higher social-communicative symptoms at baseline. LIMITATIONS: The paired visual preference we used may underestimate preference for a stimulus in younger and lower IQ individuals. Our ASD group had a lower average IQ by approximately seven points. 18% of our sample was not analysed for various technical and behavioural reasons. CONCLUSIONS: Biological motion preference elicits small-to-medium-sized case-control effects, but individual differences do not strongly relate to core social autism associated symptomatology. We interpret this as an autistic difference (as opposed to a deficit) likely manifest in social brain regions. The extent to which this is an innate difference present from birth and central to the autistic phenotype, or the consequence of a life lived with ASD, is unclear

Atypical Development of Attentional Control Associates with Later Adaptive Functioning, Autism and ADHD Traits

Funder: H2020 European Research Council; doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100010663Funder: Research Foundation FlandersFunder: Universiteit Gent; doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100004385Funder: Marguerite-Marie DelacroixFunder: Autistica; doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100011706Funder: Riksbankens Jubileumsfond; doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100004472; Grant(s): NHS14-1802:1Funder: K.F. Hein FondsFunder: Scott Family Junior Research FellowshipAbstract: Autism is frequently associated with difficulties with top-down attentional control, which impact on individuals’ mental health and quality of life. The developmental processes involved in these attentional difficulties are not well understood. Using a data-driven approach, 2 samples (N = 294 and 412) of infants at elevated and typical likelihood of autism were grouped according to profiles of parent report of attention at 10, 15 and 25 months. In contrast to the normative profile of increases in attentional control scores between infancy and toddlerhood, a minority (7–9%) showed plateauing attentional control scores between 10 and 25 months. Consistent with pre-registered hypotheses, plateaued growth of attentional control was associated with elevated autism and ADHD traits, and lower adaptive functioning at age 3 years

The breakdown of social looking

Individual differences in social looking are commonly believed to reflect one single heritable dimension tightly linked to autism. Yet, recent data suggest that in human infants, looking to eyes (rather than mouth) and preference for faces (versus non-social objects) reflect distinct genetic influences, and neither appear to have a clear-cut relation to autism