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Characteristics of Visual Fixation in Chinese Children with Autism During Face-to-Face Conversations

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Abstract

Few eye tracking studies have examined how people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) visually attend during live interpersonal interaction, and none with the Chinese population. This study used an eye tracker to record the gaze behavior in 20 Chinese children with ASD and 23 children with typical development (TD) when they were engaged in a structured conversation. Results demonstrated that children with ASD looked significantly less at the interlocutor’s mouth and whole-face, and more at background. Additionally, gaze behavior was found to vary with the conversational topic. Given the great variability in eye tracking findings in existing literature, future explorations might consider investigating how fundamental factors (i.e., participant’s characteristics, tasks, and context) influence the gaze behavior in people with ASD.

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Funding

The study was financially supported by the SZU funding project (No. 860-000002110259), the Science and Technology Innovation Committee of Shenzhen (No. JCYJ20190808115205498), Sanming project of medicine in Shenzhen (No. SZSM201612079), Key Realm R&D Program of Guangdong Province (No. 2019B030335001), Shenzhen Key Medical Discipline Construction Fund (No.SZXK042), and Shenzhen Double Chain Grant [2018]256.

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Author notes

  1. Xiaobin Zhang

    Present address: Shenzhen Guangming District Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Shenzhen, China

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Human Factors and Ergonomics, College of Mechatronics and Control Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China

    Zhong Zhao, Haiming Tang, Xiaobin Zhang, Zhipeng Zhu, Jiayi Xing, Wenzhou Li, Da Tao & Xingda Qu

  2. Department of Child Psychiatry of Shenzhen Kangning Hospital, Shenzhen Mental Health Center, Shenzhen, China

    Jianping Lu

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  1. Zhong Zhao
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Contributions

Zhong Zhao, Xiaobin Zhang, Xingda Qu and Jianping Lu involved in the experimental design and the recruitment of participants. Zhong Zhao, Haiming Tang, Zhipeng Zhu, Jiayi Xing, Wenzhou Li, Da Tao analyzed data and performed the statistics. Zhong Zhao, Haiming Tang, Xiaobin Zhang and Xingda Qu drafted and revised the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Jianping Lu.

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Appendix

Appendix

Details of the Four Sessions of the Structured Conversation

General questions

1. What is your name

2. How is your name written

3. What is the name of your school and what grade are you in?

4. Who is your best friend? What is your favorite thing to do together?

5. Could you please share with me the most interesting thing happened last week? Let me know the time, place, people and the whole process of the event

6. What is the plan for your summer vacation?

Interest topic

1. What is your favorite thing to do? And could you tell me why you like doing it?

Yes–no questions

1. Do you like apples?

2. Do you like to go to the zoo?

3. Do you like to go to school?

4. Do you like reading?

5. Do you like painting?

6. Do you like watching cartons?

7. Do you like sports?

8. Do you like watching movies?

9. Do you like traveling?

10. Do you like shopping?

Question-raising

1. Now I have asked you many questions, do you have any questions for me?

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Zhao, Z., Tang, H., Zhang, X. et al. Characteristics of Visual Fixation in Chinese Children with Autism During Face-to-Face Conversations. J Autism Dev Disord 53, 746–758 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-021-04985-y

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