No evidence of atypical attentional disengagement in autism: A study across the spectrum

Abstract

The ability to disengage attention and reengage elsewhere has been proposed as a fundamental deficit in the autism spectrum, potentially disrupting development of higher cognitive domains. Eye-movements were recorded while 16 autism spectrum children of mixed ability, and 18 typically developing age-matched controls, completed the Gap–Overlap paradigm. A significant difference in latency to fixate target was found between Gap and Overlap conditions. A significant interaction with group was due to autism spectrum participants’ shorter latencies to fixate target in the Gap condition, but similar group responses in the Overlap condition. Considerable within-group variability emerged. We predicted that attentional disengaging would be related to specific features of the phenotype; however, there was no evidence of an association with receptive language, non-verbal IQ, sensory behaviors, or autistic severity in autism spectrum or typically developing groups. In conclusion, while atypical visual attention mechanisms may be a feature of autism spectrum, this is not explained by impaired visual disengaging but is more likely due to increased susceptibility of visual fixation offset cueing. Despite best efforts, nine additional autism spectrum children could not complete testing, and data from a further six were unusable; more work is needed to develop research methods that enable individuals across the spectrum to participate.