title: Impaired representational gaze following in children with autism spectrum disorder.
abstract: Using eye-tracking methodology, we compared spontaneous gaze following in young children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (mean age 5.8 years) to that of typically developing children (mean age 5.7 years). Participants saw videos in which the position of a hidden object was either perceptually visible or was only represented in another person's mind. The findings indicate that children with Autism Spectrum Disorder were significantly less accurate in gaze following and observed the attended object for less time than typically developing children only in the Representational Condition. These results show that children with Autism Spectrum Disorder are responsive to gaze as a perceptual cue although they ignore its representational meaning.
authors.affiliation: Azienda Ospedaliera Brotzu, Center for Pervasive Developmental Disorders, Italy. Electronic address: saracongiu@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Sara
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Congiu
authors.affiliation: University of Cagliari, Department of Pedagogy, Psychology, Philosophy, Italy.
authors.forename: Roberta
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Fadda
authors.affiliation: Azienda Ospedaliera Brotzu, Center for Pervasive Developmental Disorders, Italy.
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Doneddu
authors.affiliation: Hunter College, NY, Department of Psychology, Institute for Education on Health & Research, MA, United States.
authors.forename: Tricia
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Striano
mesh_terms: D000067877:Autism Spectrum Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003071:Cognition; D003463:Cues; D053483:Eye Movement Measurements; D005133:Eye Movements; D005260:Female; D005403:Fixation, Ocular; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D012938:Social Perception
keywords: Autism spectrum disorder; Eye-tracking; Gaze-following