19883
Reduced Attention to Fearful Faces in 10 Month Old Infants at Risk for Autism

Thursday, May 14, 2015: 5:30 PM-7:00 PM
Imperial Ballroom (Grand America Hotel)
J. L. Kleberg1, P. Nyström1, G. Gredebäck1, S. Bolte2,3 and T. Falck-Ytter1,4, (1)Department of Psychology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden, (2)Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Stockholm County Council, Stockholm, Sweden, (3)Center of neurodevelopmental disorders, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden, (4)Dept. of Women's & Children's Health, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden
Background:  Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is associated with atypical face perception. Studies with children and adults have found that people with ASD are less sensitive to configural information in faces than controls. ASD is also commonly associated with impaired attention to emotional faces. These impairments may be most pronounced for negative and threat related emotions such as fear. Although atypical face scanning patterns may be one of the earliest signs of ASD in infants, little is known about the underlying mechanisms. 

Objectives: Here we assessed sensitivity to emotional expression and configural information in infants with typical development and infants at risk for ASD (HR-siblings) HR-siblings have an increased risk of developing ASD compared to the general population. Given the high risk for ASD and related developmental concerns in HR-siblings, we predicted that they would show reduced attention to fearful faces than typically developed infants. Secondly, we predicted HR-infants to be less sensitive to spatial inversion of faces, which disrupts configural processing.

Methods: 26 HR-infants (22 female) and 12 Low-risk infants (LR-infants; 6 female) were included in the final sample. The infants were 10 month old (M=10.23 months; sd = 0.45). There were no group differences in age or verbal and nonverbal cognitive development as measured with the Mullen Scales of early learning (MSEL), (all ps >.05). Gaze data was recorded using a corneal reflection eye tracker. The dependent variable was looking time to the whole face. 4 static images of happy or fearful adult faces were presented one at a time in random order (5 seconds duration). Faces were presented either upright or inverted. All trials were preceded by a central moving animation in order to attract the infant’s attention. Trials were included if the infant looked at the center of the screen at trial onset.

Results: A group (HR/LR) x Emotion (Fearful/Happy) interaction effect was found (p < .05). Follow up comparisons revealed that this was driven by longer looking time to fearful faces in the LR- as compared to the HR-group (p <.05). The LR-group looked longer at fearful than happy faces (p <.05) whereas the HR-group did not differentiate reliably between emotions. No main or interaction effect of orientation was found  

Conclusions: We found evidence of reduced attention towards fearful faces in infants at risk for ASD. Moreover, LR- but not HR- infants looked longer at fearful than at happy faces. These results are consistent with the theory that altered processing of fearful faces is an early marker of the ASD phenotype. These results are consistent with studies in older populations with ASD. Follow up of the infants studied here will determine if the performance of the HR-siblings as a group is particularly pronounced among those later being diagnosed with ASD. In contrast, no effect of spatial orientation was found. This means that no evidence of configural face processing was found in any of the groups

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