Children with autism watch movies differently than children without autism
Published: Thursday, Jan 11th 2024, 15:10
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Children with autism focus their attention on different things in movies than children without autism. According to a new study led by the University of Geneva, these differences increase significantly over the course of childhood.
"These results suggest that social attention should be considered early in clinical treatments," the Geneva research team wrote in the study published in the journal "eLife".
The researchers from the University of Geneva (Unige) investigated the attentiveness of children using the so-called eye-tracking method, as the Unige announced on Thursday. To do this, they had 166 autistic and 51 non-autistic children watch sequences of a cartoon. They recorded where the children's eyes were directed. The study participants - all boys - were between two and seven years old and were tested repeatedly over the course of their development.
Synchronized glances
In the children without autism, the researchers observed a synchronization of gaze with increasing age. The children increasingly focused their attention on the same elements of a scene.
This synchronization was missing in the autistic children. They showed an interest in other types of stimuli. For example, objects or certain irregularities in the cartoon landscape. Over time, each autistic child developed their own unique visual preferences. The researchers also found that the autistic children whose gaze was most similar to that of children with normal development functioned best in everyday life.
According to the researchers, the way in which a child views a social scene, such as the cartoon used, can be used to predict future social difficulties. "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 Unige press release.
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