Eye
Gaze Triggers Visuospatial Attentional Shift in Individuals With
Autism
T. Okada, W. Sato, T. Murai, Y. Kubota, & M. Toichi |
We examined whether eye gaze triggers reflexive attentional shift in autism.
First, autistic individuals who were lacking both joint attention
behaviors and theory-of mind abilities were examined. Targets were
randomly presented to either the left or right side of a gazing face.
Autistic subjects localized the targets faster when targets were
congruent with than against gaze directions. The occurrence of this
gaze-triggered attentional shift was further examined using different
stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs) in autistic individuals and non-autistic
controls. Autistic subjects similar to non-autistic controls responded
faster when the targets were congruent with than against gaze directions
for short SOA conditions. These results suggest that autistic individuals,
even those lacking joint attention behaviors, respond reflexively
to another person's gaze directions. Key words: autism, gaze, visuospatial attention, joint attention |