Seeing to hear? Patterns of gaze to speaking faces in children with autism spectrum disorders

Frontiers in Psychology

Julia R. Irwin¹ 

关键词: autism spectrum disorders;    audiovisual speech perception;    eyetracking;    communication development;    speech in noise;    lipreading;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00397

学科分类：心理学（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

Using eye-tracking methodology, gaze to a speaking face was compared in a group of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and a group with typical development (TD). Patterns of gaze were observed under three conditions: audiovisual (AV) speech in auditory noise, visual only speech and an AV non-face, non-speech control. Children with ASD looked less to the face of the speaker and fixated less on the speakers’ mouth than TD controls. No differences in gaze were reported for the non-face, non-speech control task. Since the mouth holds much of the articulatory information available on the face, these findings suggest that children with ASD may have reduced access to critical linguistic information. This reduced access to visible articulatory information could be a contributor to the communication and language problems exhibited by children with ASD.

【 授权许可】

CC BY