Atypical attention is considered to have an important role in the development of autism. Yet, it remains unclear whether these attentional difficulties are specific to the social domain. This study aimed to examine attentional orienting in autistic and non-autistic adults from and to non-social and social stimuli. We utilised a modified gap–overlap task with schematic images (Experiment 1: autistic = 27 and non-autistic = 26) and photographs (Experiment 2: autistic = 18 and non-autistic = 17). Eye-tracking data (i.e. saccadic latencies) were then compared across condition and type of stimulus (social or non-social) using multilevel modelling. Autistic adults exhibited mostly typical gap and overlap effects, as well as a bias towards social stimuli. Yet, autistic participants benefitted from exogenous disengagement when orienting to social information more than non-autistic participants. Neither a domain general nor social domain–specific account for attentional atypicalities in autism was supported separately. Yet, subtle combined domain differences were revealed in the gap condition.

Lay abstract

Previous research has shown that autistic individuals look at other people less and orient to them more slowly than others. Yet, it is still unclear if this represents general visual differences (e.g. slower looking at any new information, social or not) or a uniquely social difference (e.g. only slower looking to humans but not objects). Here, we aimed to examine how quickly autistic and non-autistic adults look to and away from social (i.e. faces) and non-social information (i.e. squares and houses). We used an attentional shifting task with two images where sometimes the first image disappears before the new image appears (makes it easier to notice the new image) and other times it stays on the screen when the new image appears. In Experiment 1, we showed schematic faces and squares to 27 autistic and 26 non-autistic adults, and in Experiment 2, we showed photographs of faces and houses to 18 autistic and 17 non-autistic adults. In general, autistic adults looked at the new non-social or social images similarly to non-autistic adults. Yet, only autistic adults looked at new social information faster when the first image disappeared before the new image appeared. This shows that autistic individuals may find it easier to notice new social information if their attention is not already occupied.

中文翻译：

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自闭症的注意力转移差异：一般领域、领域特定或两者兼而有之？

非典型注意力被认为在自闭症的发展中起着重要作用。然而，尚不清楚这些注意力困难是否特定于社会领域。本研究旨在检查自闭症和非自闭症成年人在非社会和社会刺激下的注意力定向。我们对示意图图像（实验 1：自闭症 = 27 和非自闭症 = 26）和照片（实验 2：自闭症 = 18 和非自闭症 = 17）使用了修改后的间隙重叠任务。然后使用多级建模在条件和刺激类型（社交或非社交）之间比较眼动追踪数据（即扫视延迟）。自闭症成年人大多表现出典型的差距和重叠效应，以及对社会刺激的偏见。然而，与非自闭症参与者相比，自闭症参与者在更多地关注社会信息时从外源性脱离中受益。对孤独症注意非典型性的一般领域或社会领域特定的解释都没有单独支持。然而，在间隙条件下揭示了微妙的组合域差异。

摘要

先前的研究表明，自闭症患者比其他人更少看别人，更慢地适应他们。然而，目前尚不清楚这是否代表一般的视觉差异（例如，较慢地查看任何新信息，无论是否社交）还是独特的社交差异（例如，仅较慢地看人类而不是物体）。在这里，我们的目的是检查自闭症和非自闭症成年人看和远离社交（即面孔）和非社交信息（即方块和房屋）的速度有多快。我们使用了两个图像的注意力转移任务，有时第一个图像在新图像出现之前消失（更容易注意到新图像），而其他时候当新图像出现时它留在屏幕上。在实验 1 中，我们向 27 名自闭症和 26 名非自闭症成年人展示了示意性面孔和正方形，在实验 2 中，我们向 18 名自闭症和 17 名非自闭症成年人展示了面孔和房屋的照片。一般来说，自闭症成年人与非自闭症成年人类似地看待新的非社会或社会形象。然而，只有当第一张图像在新图像出现之前消失时，只有自闭症成年人才能更快地查看新的社交信息。这表明，如果自闭症患者的注意力没有被占用，他们可能会发现更容易注意到新的社交信息。