Pattern of fixation explains atypical eye processing during observation of faces with direct or averted gaze in autism (results of the INFoR Cohort)

Abstract

One of the most reliable early predictors of autism is atypical social attention, particularly attenuated eye gaze contact. As a part of the InFoR cohort, a multicentric French longitudinal study, 88 autistic participants and 56 participants without autism performed a gaze discrimination task using 28 static pictures of faces with either direct or averted gaze. We monitored eye fixation behavior during face picture observation and analyzed subsequent key-press responses. The eyes of faces with direct gaze attracted more fixations than those of faces with averted gaze. Autistic participants showed significantly reduced Eye Fixations Indexes (EFI; a parameter derived from the number of fixatio..