We explored the social synchronization of gaze-shift behaviors when responding to joint attention in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Forty-one children aged 5 to 8 with ASD and 43 typically developing (TD) children watched a video to complete the response to joint attention (RJA) tasks, during which their gaze data were collected. The synchronization of gaze-shift behaviors between children and the female model in the video was measured with the cross-recurrence quantification analysis (CRQA). Ultimately, we discovered that children with ASD had the ability to synchronize their gaze shifts with the female model in the video during RJA tasks. Compared to the TD children, they displayed lower levels of synchronization and longer latency in this synchronized behavior. These findings provide a new avenue to deepen our understanding of the impairments of social interaction in children with ASD. Notably, the analytic method can be further applied to explore the social synchronization of numerous other social interactive behaviors in ASD.

中文翻译：

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自闭症谱系障碍儿童共同注意过程中的社会同步

我们探讨了对自闭症谱系障碍 (ASD) 儿童的共同注意做出反应时凝视转移行为的社会同步性。41 名 5 至 8 岁患有 ASD 的儿童和 43 名正常发育 (TD) 儿童观看视频以完成对联合注意 (RJA) 任务的反应，在此期间收集了他们的注视数据。视频中儿童和女性模型之间视线转移行为的同步是通过交叉复发量化分析 (CRQA) 来测量的。最终，我们发现患有 ASD 的儿童能够在 RJA 任务期间将他们的视线转移与视频中的女性模型同步。与 TD 孩子相比，他们在这种同步行为中表现出较低的同步水平和较长的延迟。这些发现为加深我们对 ASD 儿童社交互动障碍的理解提供了新的途径。值得注意的是，该分析方法可以进一步应用于探索 ASD 中众多其他社交互动行为的社交同步。