ERIC Number: EJ797420
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2008-Jul
Pages: 13
Abstractor: Author
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0278-2626
EISSN: N/A
Is Anyone Looking at Me? Direct Gaze Detection in Children with and without Autism
Senju, Atsushi; Kikuchi, Yukiko; Hasegawa, Toshikazu; Tojo, Yoshikuni; Osanai, Hiroo
Brain and Cognition, v67 n2 p127-139 Jul 2008
Atypical processing of eye contact is one of the significant characteristics of individuals with autism, but the mechanism underlying atypical direct gaze processing is still unclear. This study used a visual search paradigm to examine whether the facial context would affect direct gaze detection in children with autism. Participants were asked to detect target gazes presented among distracters with different gaze directions. The target gazes were either direct gaze or averted gaze, which were either presented alone (Experiment 1) or within facial context (Experiment 2). As with the typically developing children, the children with autism, were faster and more efficient to detect direct gaze than averted gaze, whether or not the eyes were presented alone or within faces. In addition, face inversion distorted efficient direct gaze detection in typically developing children, but not in children with autism. These results suggest that children with autism use featural information to detect direct gaze, whereas typically developing children use configural information to detect direct gaze. (Contains 4 tables and 4 figures.)
Descriptors: Nonverbal Communication, Autism, Eye Movements, Models, Children, Child Development, Human Body, Identification, Experiments
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A