Brief Report: Young Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder ShowNormal Attention to Eye-Gaze Information—Evidence from aNew Change Blindness Paradigm

摘要

Other people's eye-gaze is a powerful socialstimulus that captures and directs visual attention. There isevidence that this is not the case for children with autismspectrum disorder (ASD), although less is known aboutattention to eye-gaze in adults. We investigated whetheryoung adults would detect a change to the direction of eye-gaze in another's face more efficiently than a controlchange (presence/absence of spectacles). A change blind-ness method was used in which images showed faces aspart of a complex, naturalistic scene. Results showed thatadults with ASD, like typically developing controls, werefaster and more accurate at detecting eye-gaze than controlchanges. Results are considered in terms of a develop-mental account of the relationship between social attentionand other skills.