International Meeting for Autism Research: Is There a Difference in the Amount of Direct Eye Contact in 3-Month-Old Infants Later Classified with ASD Compared to Unaffected Infants?

Is There a Difference in the Amount of Direct Eye Contact in 3-Month-Old Infants Later Classified with ASD Compared to Unaffected Infants?

Thursday, May 20, 2010
Franklin Hall B Level 4 (Philadelphia Marriott Downtown)
1:00 PM
M. M. Abdullah , Department of Psychology and Social Behavior, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA
P. A. Filipek , Pediatrics, University of Texas Health Sciences Center at Houston, Houston, TX
P. L. Horner , Department of Pediatrics, UCI School of Medicine, Orange, CA
J. T. Phan , Department of Pediatrics, UCI School of Medicine, Orange, CA
Background:   Recent studies in small cohorts of infants reported that decreased eye contact in 6-month old infants may predict ASD in some infants at risk (Merin et al., 2007).  No one has yet investigated direct eye contact in infants at risk for ASD before age 6 months.
Objectives:   To examine whether 3-month-old infants later classified with ASD differed in the amount of direct eye contact during still-face interactions compared to unaffected infants.
Methods:   Twelve infants (4 males) who were predominantly Caucasian or of mixed ethnicity (42% and 42%, respectively) were enrolled in the study between age 1 and 2 months.  Parents were well-educated (67% with 4 years college or greater).  At age 3 months, direct eye contact during infant-parent and infant-researcher interactions were videotaped using a fiberoptic eyeglass camera in 4 face-to-face car seat conditions:  (1) interaction with parent using infant-directed speech; (2) interaction with parent with a “still face”; (3) interaction with researcher using infant-directed speech; and (4) interaction with researcher with a “still face”.  Using Noldus Observer 9.0 software, videotaped interactions were coded for percentage of direct eye contact by trained research assistants who attained substantial inter-rater reliability with training videos (κ ≥ .72) and who were blind to later ASD classification.  To obtain ASD classification, the Toddler ADOS was administered to participants at chronological and nonverbal mental age of 12 months or greater, as measured by the Mullen Scales of Early Learning (Mullen, 1995), with independent ambulation.  Group differences in the percentage of direct eye contact during each interaction between children classified with ASD and unaffected children were examined using Mann-Whitney U-tests. 
Results:  Twelve infants (6 classified with ASD) completed both infant-parent interactions.  There were no significant differences in the percentage of direct eye contact during either of the parent-infant interactions between the children classified with ASD and the unaffected children.  Seven infants (3 classified with ASD) completed both infant-researcher interactions.  There were no significant differences between groups in the face-to-face interaction with the researcher using infant-directed speech.  However, children classified with ASD demonstrated greater direct eye contact during the “still face” paradigm compared to unaffected children at age 3 months (Mann-Whitney U = 0.000, p = .034). 
Conclusions:   Based on preliminary analyses, the “still face” interaction by an unfamiliar adult may be a provocative social disengagement scenario to which infants later classified with ASD attend significantly more than their unaffected peers.  Final analyses on the full sample will be presented.
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