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Visual Interest for Biological Motion and Correlation to Early Social Behaviours in Young Children with ASD
According to the social motivation theory of autism (Chevallier et al., 2012), the lack of social interest and orientation to social stimuli explains part of the symptomatology of individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). These symptoms are expressed in several ways as the avoidance of eye contact or a reduction of joint attention behaviours (JAB). Measuring the lack of orienting on social relevant stimuli with eye-tracking (ET) could be an interesting way to discriminate between ASD and typically developing (TD) young children’s visual pattern and to predict behavioural deficits in ASD individuals.
Objectives:
The aim of the study is to define a social phenotype for ASD by using visual interest on social stimuli (biological motion) vs. geometric objects (non-biological motion). Moreover, we aim at exploring the correlation between the lack of interest on social stimuli in ASD individuals and their symptoms's severity.
Methods:
On the basis of Pierce and colleagues ET paradigm (2011), a split screen with biological motion and non-biological motion was presented. Images were both presented at the same time. Using the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS, Lord & Spence, 2006) and the Early Social Communication Scale (ESCS, Mundy et al., 2003), we also investigated the correlation between visual preference for non-biological motion and symptoms severity. Twenty children with ASD (mean age= 3.36±1.78), and 15 typically developing children (mean age= 3.77±1.69) were evaluated.
Results:
The Student’s t-test showed a significantly higher interest for non-biological motion in children with ASD compared to NT (t=3.174, p<0.01). Moreover, this interest correlates with ADOS Communication Score (r=0.706, p<0.01) but not with ADOS Repetitive Behaviours Score (r=0.382, p>0.05). Further correlation demonstrated that the preference for non-biological motion could predict the lack of JAB in the ESCS (r=0.658, p<0.05).
Conclusions:
Our results further confirm a good discrimination between ASD and TD children in visual preference for social stimuli vs. geometric objects. The significant correlation between interest for geometric motion and the severity of symptoms on communicational deficits and JAB further strengthen the social motivation hypothesis in autism.