This R01 focuses on the hypothesis that spontaneous visual fixation and visual scanning patterns are predictors of level of social competence in individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). This hypothesis originated from research using eye-tracking technology to measure visual fixation time while cognitively-able adolescents and adults with autism watched naturalistic social scenes. Time spent looking at mouth, body, and object regions was 2? times greater in individuals with autism relative to age-, sex-, and verbal IQ-matched controls. Time spent looking at the eyes, however, was 2? times less in individuals with autism. Fixation time on mouths and objects was a strong predictor of level of daily social adjustment and level of autistic social symptomatology, while fixation time on eyes showed little relation to these outcome measures of social competence. Increased fixation on mouths predicted more social competence, whereas increased fixation on objects predicted less. Work on visual scanning patterns seems to yield even greater differences between the individuals with autism and controls. We request 5 years of support to examine this hypothesis in the context of a wider spectrum of autism manifestations, age, and cognitive levels. We propose to complete eye-tracking procedures for 96 participants with ASD and 96 age- and verbal IQ-matched controls aged 5 to 12 years.
In specific aim #1 we will study the relationship between visual fixation patterns and age, verbal IQ, and outcome measures of social competence, which include standardized measures of social impairment, social adjustment, and social cognition.
In specific aim #2 we will examine the relationship between visual scanning patterns and the same outcome measures of social competence, as well as age and verbal IQ. Apart from providing a unique window into the ways in which individuals with autism search for meaning when confronted with social situations, our overarching goal is to develop the eye-tracking paradigm into a laboratory-based quantifier of social disability, which is an important need in current genetic research of the varying manifestations of autism. The proposed R01 works synergistically with other ongoing eye-tracking research including studies of toddlers at risk of having autism and studies of monkeys with mesiofrontal-limbic ablations.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01HD042127-05
Application #
7122122
Study Section
Biobehavioral and Behavioral Processes 3 (BBBP)
Program Officer
Kau, Alice S
Project Start
2002-09-27
Project End
2007-08-31
Budget Start
2006-09-01
Budget End
2007-08-31
Support Year
5
Fiscal Year
2006
Total Cost
$350,860
Indirect Cost
Name
Yale University
Department
Psychiatry
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
043207562
City
New Haven
State
CT
Country
United States
Zip Code
06520
Rice, Katherine; Moriuchi, Jennifer M; Jones, Warren et al. (2012) Parsing heterogeneity in autism spectrum disorders: visual scanning of dynamic social scenes in school-aged children. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 51:238-48
Klin, Ami (2008) Three things to remember if you are a functional magnetic resonance imaging researcher of face processing in autism spectrum disorders. Biol Psychiatry 64:549-51
Volkmar, Fred; Chawarska, Kasia; Klin, Ami (2005) Autism in infancy and early childhood. Annu Rev Psychol 56:315-36
Klin, Ami; Chawarska, Katarzyna; Paul, Rhea et al. (2004) Autism in a 15-month-old child. Am J Psychiatry 161:1981-8
Volkmar, Fred R; Lord, Catherine; Bailey, Anthony et al. (2004) Autism and pervasive developmental disorders. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 45:135-70