Specifics of visual perception in infants with familial risk of autism spectrum disorders

Abstract

Preclinical prediction of autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) is one of the priorities of current research. Children at risk of ASD develop an atypical visual perception profile early in their lives, which influences their visual responsiveness, distribution of attention, and social orienting. In this study we have compared the oculomotor behavior in an infant at familial risk of ASD with data from two 10-month infants with typical development. The SMI RED500 eye tracker was used for acquisition. Most parameters of visual perception in the at-risk infant were found to differ significantly from these of the controls. The strategy of visual search in the at-risk infant was generally less successful (13% of attempts vs 31% and 56% in the controls) with a tendency to focus predominantly on social stimuli (50% of the total gaze time). The said changes together with longer fixation duration (576.41 ms vs 527.77 and 386.72 ms in the two controls), lower saccadic frequency (1.74 counts/ms vs 1.84 and 2.18 counts/ms), and shorter scan path length (2774.24 px vs 3612.58 and 3985.43 px) may result in difficulties in switching tasks and processing information.