title: Increased Eye Contact During Conversation Compared to Play in Children With Autism.
abstract: Children with autism have atypical gaze behavior but it is unknown whether gaze differs during distinct types of reciprocal interactions. Typically developing children (N = 20) and children with autism (N = 20) (4-13 years) made similar amounts of eye contact with an examiner during a conversation. Surprisingly, there was minimal eye contact during interactive play in both groups. Gaze behavior was stable across 8 weeks in children with autism (N = 15). Lastly, gaze behavior during conversation but not play was associated with autism social affect severity scores (ADOS CSS SA) and the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS-2). Together findings suggests that eye contact in typical and atypical development is influenced by subtle changes in context, which has implications for optimizing assessments of social communication skills.
authors.affiliation: Center for Autism and the Developing Brain, Weill Cornell Medicine, 21 Bloomingdale Road, White Plains, NY, 10605, USA. rej2004@med.cornell.edu.
authors.forename: Rebecca M
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-7830-7481
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.affiliation: Center for Behavioral Imaging, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA.
authors.forename: Audrey
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Southerland
authors.affiliation: Center for Autism and the Developing Brain, Weill Cornell Medicine, 21 Bloomingdale Road, White Plains, NY, 10605, USA.
authors.forename: Amarelle
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hamo
authors.affiliation: Center for Autism and the Developing Brain, Weill Cornell Medicine, 21 Bloomingdale Road, White Plains, NY, 10605, USA.
authors.forename: Caroline
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Carberry
authors.affiliation: Center for Behavioral Imaging, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA.
authors.forename: Chanel
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bridges
authors.affiliation: Center for Behavioral Imaging, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA.
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nay
authors.affiliation: Center for Behavioral Imaging, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA.
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Stubbs
authors.affiliation: Center for Autism and the Developing Brain, Weill Cornell Medicine, 21 Bloomingdale Road, White Plains, NY, 10605, USA.
authors.forename: Emily
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Komarow
authors.affiliation: Center for Behavioral Imaging, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA.
authors.forename: Clay
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Washington
authors.affiliation: Center for Behavioral Imaging, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA.
authors.forename: James M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Rehg
authors.affiliation: Center for Autism and the Developing Brain, Weill Cornell Medicine, 21 Bloomingdale Road, White Plains, NY, 10605, USA.
authors.forename: Catherine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lord
authors.affiliation: Center for Behavioral Imaging, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA.
authors.forename: Agata
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rozga
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003142:Communication; D005260:Female; D005403:Fixation, Ocular / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010988:Play and Playthings; D066107:Social Skills
keywords: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD); Context; Eye contact; Gaze; Naturalistic interactions; Play