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A Comparison of Live Versus Video Modalities for Measurement of Eye Contact in Infants at Age 6 Months As ‘Red Flags' for ASD

Thursday, May 14, 2015: 5:30 PM-7:00 PM
Imperial Ballroom (Grand America Hotel)
A. Townsend1, J. A. Chevallier2, P. A. Filipek1, C. Laufer1, M. M. Abdullah3, P. Horner3, J. T. Phan3, K. Pham3, K. Jung1 and J. M. Williams1, (1)University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, TX, (2)UT Houston, Houston, TX, (3)University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA
Background: Considerable research in infants-at-risk for ASD (IAR) has focused on eye-tracking devices to measure the degree of eye contact, with variable results at age 6-months (mos). Many studies of eye fixation show abnormalities developing between 6- to 12-mos of age, often reporting no differences from typical infants at 6-mos but significant differences in eye gaze patterns by 12-mos. However, Jones and Klin showed that at-risk infants had a mean decline in eye fixations from 2- to 6-mos that continued to decline to ~50% of typical infants by 24-mos, while object fixations nearly doubled.1 By 6-mos, Chawarska et al. showed that IAR spend more time engaged in abstract stimuli and disengaged from pertinent social stimuli, and gaze less at the inner features of the face compared to low risk infants.2,3 These findings suggest that IAR already do not attend to the salient facial features necessary for social communication in very early infancy.4

Objectives: To compare two eye gaze modalities in 6-month-old infants who were later classified as either ADOS-Toddler Module (ADOS-T) positive (ASD+) or Non-Spectrum (N/S) as toddlers: conventional eye-tracking with caregiver’s face presented on a monitor (FTM) versus face-to-face (FTF).  

 Methods:  Twenty-three 6-mos old infants interacted with their caregiver during traditional Still-Face (SF) paradigms while eye contact was recorded under two conditions:

  • with a conventional Tobii eye-tracking device (FTM), and
  • FTF recorded with a fiber-optic eyeglass camera.

Each infant had psychometric testing including the ADOS-T in the second year of life. ADOS-T classification was used to divide the subjects post-hoc into ASD+ (n=10) and N/S (n=13) groups.

Trained blinded researchers coded eye contact data using Tobii 1.73 and Noldus X10. Fixation length (FL), fixation count (FC), and mean duration (MD) of eye contact were subjected to ANOVAs to compare the two groups; only effect sizes greater than 0.5 were considered to be meaningful differences between the two groups.

 Results:  

  • Both groups generally had higher FL and MD of eye contact in FTF-SF than in FTM-SF interactions.
  • However, during FTF-SF, the ASD+ group had significantly lower FL and MD of eye contact than the N/S group (p≤ 0.001).
  • The ASD+ group also surprisingly had a longer FL in FTF than FTM interactions, but had a greater FC in FTM than FTF interactions.

Conclusions: As noted by several other studies, ASD+ infants displayed eye contact behaviors similar to that of N/S infants during FTM video interactions at 6-mos. In contrast, in FTF interactions ASD+ infants had fewer fixations with shorter durations than did the N/S infants. Live social interactions may be a more sensitive experimental tool than computerized eye-tracking technology in detecting anomalous eye contact in ASD+ infants as young as 6-mos. 

1. Jones W, Klin A. Nature 2013;504:427-431.

2. Chawarska K, Shic F. JADD 2009;39:1663-1672.

3. Chawarska K, Macari S, Shic F. Biol Psychiatry 2013;74:195-203.

4. Hunnius S, Geuze RH. Infant Behav Dev 2004;27:397-416.

See more of: Early Development (<48 months)
See more of: Early Development (< 48 months)