Brief Report: Patterns of Eye Movements in Face to Face Conversation are Associated with Autistic Traits: Evidence from a Student Sample

• Published in: Journal of autism and developmental disorders Vol. 46; no. 1; pp. 305 - 314
• Main Authors: Vabalas, Andrius, Freeth, Megan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01-01-2016; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adolescents; Adult; Anxiety; Autism; Autism Spectrum Disorders; Autistic Disorder - physiopathology; Behavioral Science and Psychology; Brief Report; Care and treatment; Child and School Psychology; Child psychology; College Students; Communication; Complications and side effects; Exploration; Eye; Eye contact; Eye Movements; Face; Female; Humans; Individual differences; Interaction; Interpersonal Relations; Interpersonal Relationship; Male; Movements; Neurosciences; Pediatrics; Pervasive developmental disorders; Psychology; Public Health; Saccades - physiology; Social anxiety; Social interactions; Students - psychology; Studies; Symptoms (Individual Disorders); Tracking; Undergraduate students; Visual Perception; Young Adult; Social attention; Eye movements; Mobile eye-tracking; Autistic traits
• ISSN: 0162-3257; 1573-3432
• DOI: 10.1007/s10803-015-2546-y

The current study investigated whether the amount of autistic traits shown by an individual is associated with viewing behaviour during a face-to-face interaction. The eye movements of 36 neurotypical university students were recorded using a mobile eye-tracking device. High amounts of autistic traits were neither associated with reduced looking to the social partner overall, nor with reduced looking to the face. However, individuals who were high in autistic traits exhibited reduced visual exploration during the face-to-face interaction overall, as demonstrated by shorter and less frequent saccades. Visual exploration was not related to social anxiety. This study suggests that there are systematic individual differences in visual exploration during social interactions and these are related to amount of autistic traits.