title: Atypical monitoring and responsiveness to goal-directed gaze in autism spectrum disorder.
abstract: We hypothesized that difficulty in understanding the goals of others' actions in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) might be linked to a diminished attention and responsivity to relevant social cues. Using an eye-tracking paradigm, we investigated how 24 children with ASD and 24 matched children without ASD responded to the observation of uncompleted actions without a clear target (neutral condition) versus a condition in which the actor's gaze direction indicated the target of the actions (head-turning condition). Children without ASD significantly increased their attention to the actor's face and to the action's target in the head-turning condition compared to the neutral condition, while this was not the case in the ASD group. Overall, our findings suggest a diminished monitoring and responsivity to social cues signalling goal-directedness, which might impact on the ability to understand other's action goals in young children with ASD.
authors.affiliation: Olga Tennison Autism Research Centre, School of Psychological Science, La Trobe University, Bundoora Campus, Melbourne, VIC, 3086, Australia, g.vivanti@latrobe.edu.au.
authors.forename: Giacomo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Vivanti
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Trembath
authors.forename: Cheryl
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Dissanayake
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002659:Child Development Disorders, Pervasive / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D005403:Fixation, Ocular / Q000502:physiology*; D006040:Goals; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009068:Movement; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires