Visual Preference for Biological Motion in Children and Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder: An Eye-Tracking Study

Participants with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) (n = 121, mean [SD] age: 14.6 [8.0] years) and typically developing (TD) controls (n = 40, 16.4 [13.3] years) were presented with a series of videos representing biological motion on one side of a computer monitor screen and non-biological motion on the other, while their eye movements were recorded. As predicted, participants with ASD spent less overall time looking at presented stimuli than TD participants (P < 10(-3)) and showed less preference for biological motion (P < 10(-5)). Participants with ASD also had greater average latencies than TD participants of the first fixation on both biological (P < 0.01) and non-biological motion (P < 0.02). Findings suggest that individuals with ASD differ from TD individuals on multiple properties of eye movements and biological motion preference.

Automated summary

The study found that individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) differ from typically developing individuals in multiple properties of eye movements and biological motion preference. Participants with ASD spent less overall time looking at presented stimuli and showed less preference for biological motion. Additionally, individuals with ASD had greater average latencies of the first fixation on both biological and non-biological motion compared to typically developing participants.