title: Visual disengagement in the infant siblings of children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
abstract: Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are impaired in visually disengaging attention in both social and non-social contexts. These impairments may, in subtler form, also affect the infant siblings of children with ASD (ASD-sibs). We investigated patterns of visual attention (gazing) in 6-month-old ASD-sibs (n=17) and the siblings of typically developing children (COMP-sibs: n=17) during the Face-to-Face/Still-Face Protocol (FFSF), in which parents are sequentially responsive, non-responsive, and responsive to their infants. Throughout the protocol, ASD-sibs shifted their gaze to and from their parents' faces less frequently than did COMP-sibs. The mean durations of ASD-sibs' gazes away from their parents' faces were longer than those of COMP-sibs. ASD-sibs and COMP-sibs did not differ in the mean durations of gazes at their parents' faces. In sum, ASD-sibs showed no deficits in visual interest to their parents' faces, but greater interest than COMP-sibs in non-face stimuli.
authors.affiliation: University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL 33146, USA.
authors.forename: Lisa V
authors.initials: LV
authors.lastname: Ibanez
authors.forename: Daniel S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Messinger
authors.forename: Lisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Newell
authors.forename: Brittany
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Lambert
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sheskin
mesh_terms: D001288:Attention; D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003142:Communication; D005260:Female; D005403:Fixation, Ocular; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D035781:Siblings; D012919:Social Behavior; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*