title: Delayed disengagement of attention from snakes in children with autism.
abstract: In the visual search task, it is well known that detection of a tilted straight line as the target among vertical lines that act as distractors is easier than vice versa, and that detection of a snake image as the target among flower images is easier than vice versa. In this study, the degree of such search asymmetry was compared between 18 children with autism and 14 typically developing (TD) children. The results revealed that compared to TD children, children with autism were disproportionally slow when asked to detect the flower among the snake images, suggesting the possibility that they experienced difficulty of disengaging their attention from the snake images. This delayed disengagement would serve itself as an enhanced attentional bias toward snakes in children with autism that is similar to characteristics of visual search performance in anxiety patients.
authors.affiliation: Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, Inuyama Japan.
authors.forename: Tomoko
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Isomura
authors.affiliation: Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, Inuyama Japan.
authors.forename: Shino
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ogawa
authors.affiliation: Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, Inuyama Japan.
authors.forename: Masahiro
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Shibasaki
authors.affiliation: Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, Inuyama Japan.
authors.forename: Nobuo
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Masataka
keywords: attention; autism; biological adaptation; cognitive impairment; snake fear