American scientists have examined how infants, children and adults pay attention to faces when watching videos.
- It is estimated that one in 160 people worldwide has autism spectrum disorder.
- Autistics have different perceptions of faces than neurotypicals.
This is a new step towards designing better diagnostic tests for autism. Researchers from the University of California-Riverside have found that infants, children and adults see faces differently when watching videos. However, attention to faces is one of the biomarkers of autism.
Pay less attention to faces
“People with autism have been shown to look at faces on screens less often than neurotypical participants” explains John M. Franchak, associate professor of psychology and author of the study. Thus, knowing how face-centering (putting a face at the center of a scene) shapes behavior and how its perception changes with age could be important for designing better diagnostic tests for autism. according to Mr. Franchak.
According to the professor, determining the extent to which attention paid to faces depends on their salience and centering and whether or not these data change with age will be essential in deciding which characteristics of facial stimuli should be controlled during autism diagnostic tests. As a reminder, facial salience measures how a face stands out from the surrounding scene.
“Sesame Street”
A total of 79 children and 20 adults participated in these works where each person watched two clips of “Sesame Street”, two music videos and a video clip of a science demonstration for children. All the videos featured a number of faces and during viewing, the study authors tracked each participant’s eye movements to assess the influence of salience and centering as cues for looking at a face. .