BACKGROUND Learning through social observation (i.e., watching other people interact) lays the foundation for later social skills and social cognition. However, social situations are often complex, and humans are only capable of attending to one aspect of a scene at a time. How do people choose where to allocate their visual resources when viewing complex social scenarios? For typically developing (TD) individuals, faces are often given priority. Depending upon context, however, it may be more useful to attend to other aspects of the environment, such as hands, tools, or background objects. Previous studies reported reduced face looking in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but modulation of visual attention in response to contextual differences (e.g., according to social richness, or the presence/absence of communicative behaviors between two people) has only briefly been explored. In this study, we used eye-tracking technology to test the extent to which ASD adults and TD adults use social context to guide their gaze behavior. METHODS Fifty-five adults participated (28 with ASD). The location and duration of participants' gaze were recorded while they watched a series of naturalistic social videos. Half of the videos depicted two people engaging in non-verbal communication (rich social scenes) while playing with toys. The other half depicted two people playing with toys separately, not interacting with each other (lean social scenes). RESULTS ASD and TD adults both increased their attention to faces in communicative contexts (rich social scenes) as compared to non-communicative contexts (lean social scenes). However, TD adults increased their attention to faces significantly more when watching two people communicate than did ASD adults, who increased their attention to a lesser degree. Further analysis revealed that ASD adults persisted in looking at hands and toys, even when observing two people communicate in a rich social scene. CONCLUSIONS Diminished gaze to faces when observing two people communicating may lead to fewer opportunities for social learning and subsequent reductions in social knowledge. Naturalistic measures of contextual modulation could help identify areas of need for individuals learning about the social world and could become treatment targets to improve everyday social learning.

中文翻译：

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适应不同的交流环境：对自闭症成年人的眼动追踪研究。

背景技术通过社交观察（即，看着其他人互动）进行学习，为以后的社交技能和社交认知奠定了基础。但是，社交场合通常很复杂，人类一次只能关注场景的一个方面。在查看复杂的社交场景时，人们如何选择将视觉资源分配到哪里？对于典型的发展中（TD）个人，通常优先考虑面孔。但是，取决于上下文，关注环境的其他方面（例如手，工具或背景对象）可能会更有用。先前的研究报道，自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）患者的面部表情减少，但是视环境差异（例如，根据社会富裕程度，或两个人之间是否存在交际行为）。在这项研究中，我们使用眼动追踪技术来测试ASD成年人和TD成年人使用社交情境指导其注视行为的程度。方法共有55名成年人参加（28名ASD）。在观看一系列自然主义社交视频时，会记录参与者凝视的位置和持续时间。视频的一半描述了两个人在玩玩具时进行非语言交流（丰富的社交场景）。另一半描绘了两个人分别玩玩具，彼此不互动（精简的社交场景）。结果与非交流情境（精益社交场景）相比，ASD和TD成人在社交情境（丰富的社交场景）中都增加了对面部表情的关注。然而，TD成年人在观看两个人的交流时，对面部的注意力明显增加，而ASD成年人对面部的注意力明显增加，而ASD成年人的注意力则较少。进一步的分析表明，即使观察到两个人在丰富的社交场合中进行交流，ASD成年人仍会继续注视着手和玩具。结论观察两个人交流时，凝视的表情减少了，可能会减少社交学习的机会，从而减少社交知识。情境调节的自然主义措施可以帮助确定个人学习社会世界的需求领域，并可以成为改善日常社会学习的治疗目标。他们的注意力在较小程度上增加了。进一步的分析表明，即使观察到两个人在丰富的社交场合中进行交流，ASD成年人仍会继续注视着手和玩具。结论观察两个人交流时，凝视的表情减少了，可能会减少社交学习的机会，从而减少社交知识。情境调节的自然主义措施可以帮助确定个人学习社会世界的需求领域，并可以成为改善日常社会学习的治疗目标。他们的注意力在较小程度上增加了。进一步的分析表明，即使观察到两个人在丰富的社交场合中进行交流，ASD成年人仍会继续注视着手和玩具。结论观察两个人交流时，凝视的表情减少了，可能会减少社交学习的机会，从而减少社交知识。情境调节的自然主义措施可以帮助确定个人学习社会世界的需求领域，并可以成为改善日常社会学习的治疗目标。结论观察两个人交流时，凝视的表情减少了，可能会减少社交学习的机会，从而减少社交知识。情境调节的自然主义措施可以帮助确定个人学习社会世界的需求领域，并可以成为改善日常社会学习的治疗目标。结论观察两个人交流时，凝视的表情减少了，可能会减少社交学习的机会，从而减少社交知识。情境调节的自然主义措施可以帮助确定个人学习社会世界的需求领域，并可以成为改善日常社会学习的治疗目标。