Abstract:

Using eye-tracking technology, this study aimed to explore whether the reduced attention to social scenes in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) stems from threat perception induced by others’ eye gaze in the scene or a lack of social motivation. A total of 22 children with ASD and 22 mental age-matched typically developing (TD) children participated in the study. By viewing paired presentations of social and non-social stimuli, the study compared the gaze patterns of ASD children toward different social scenes. The social scenes included first-person perspective and third-person perspective images, that is, the first-person perspective referred to images where models made direct eye contact with ASD children, while the third-person perspective referred to images where models gazed at each other, with ASD children in an observer role. The results showed that: 1) from the third-person perspective, ASD children’s dwell time on human scenes was significantly longer than that on object scenes, and their dwell time on human scenes was significantly longer than that from the first-person perspective; 2) from the third-person perspective, ASD children’s dwell time on humans was longer than that of TD children. These findings support the eye gaze threat hypothesis and provide guidance for educational interventions.

Key words: autism spectrum disorder, social scenes, social information processing, perspective, eye avoidance hypothesis

摘要：

采用眼动追踪技术，探讨孤独症谱系障碍(autism spectrum disorder, ASD)儿童对社会性场景缺少关注的原因，是受到场景中人物眼睛的威胁还是缺少社会动机。本研究选取22名ASD儿童和22名心理年龄匹配的典型发育儿童(typically developing, TD)为被试，通过观看配对呈现的社会性刺激和非社会性刺激，比较ASD儿童对不同社会性场景的注视情况。社会性场景包含第一视角和第三视角图片，第一视角指图片中模特的目光与ASD儿童直接对视，第三视角指的是图片中模特的目光彼此对视，ASD儿童处于旁观者的视角。结果发现：第三视角下，ASD儿童对人的场景的凝视时间显著长于物的场景，且ASD儿童对人的场景的凝视时间显著长于第一视角；在第三视角下，ASD儿童对人的凝视时间长于TD儿童。本研究的结果支持眼神威胁假说，可为教育干预提供一定的指导。

关键词: 孤独症谱系障碍, 社会性场景, 社交信息处理, 视角, 眼神威胁假说