title: Exploring What's Missing: What Do Target Absent Trials Reveal About Autism Search Superiority?
abstract: We used eye-tracking to investigate the roles of enhanced discrimination and peripheral selection in superior visual search in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Children with ASD were faster at visual search than their typically developing peers. However, group differences in performance and eye-movements did not vary with the level of difficulty of discrimination or selection. Rather, consistent with prior ASD research, group differences were mainly the effect of faster performance on target-absent trials. Eye-tracking revealed a lack of left-visual-field search asymmetry in ASD, which may confer an additional advantage when the target is absent. Lastly, ASD symptomatology was positively associated with search superiority, the mechanisms of which may shed light on the atypical brain organization that underlies social-communicative impairment in ASD.
authors.affiliation: Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, Purdue University, 715 Clinic Drive, Lyles-Porter Hall, West Lafayette, IN, 47907, USA. bkeehn@purdue.edu.|Department of Psychological Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA. bkeehn@purdue.edu.
authors.forename: Brandon
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Keehn
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Robert M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Joseph
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D000067877:Autism Spectrum Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology; D002648:Child; D005133:Eye Movements / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology*; D014794:Visual Fields / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Attention; Autism; Eye-tracking; Visual search