Children with autism focus their attention on different facets of films compared to children without autism, according to a study led by the University of Geneva. The variations increase significantly as children get older.
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Estudo suíço revela que crianças com autismo veem imagens de filmes de forma diferente
“The results suggest that social attention should be considered early in clinical treatments,” wrote the Geneva researchers in the study published in the journal eLife.
The researchers from the University of Geneva analysed the attention of children using the so-called eye-tracking method, they university said in a press release on Thursday.
Some 166 children with autism and 51 without watched sequences of a cartoon, with researchers then recording where the participants focussed their eyes. The children – all boys – were between two and seven years old and were tested repeatedly over the course of their development.
In children without autism, the researchers observed a synchronisation of their gaze as age increased. More and more, the children were seen to focus their attention on the same elements of a scene.
This synchronisation was absent in the children with autism. They showed an interest in other types of stimuli: for example, certain objects or irregularities in the cartoon landscape. Over time, each child then developed their own unique visual preferences. The researchers also found that children with autism whose gaze was most similar to that of children with normal development functioned best in everyday life.
How a child views a social scene, such as in the cartoons used, can be used to predict future social difficulties, the researchers say. “This work shows that if autistic children do not show interest in social interactions from an early age, they become increasingly disinterested,” explained study leader Marie Schaer in the press release.
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