Personality and Perceptual Features of the Broad Autism Phenotype: Eye Gaze during Narration of "Frog, Where Are You?"

Background:  

Converging evidence suggests that subtle social and communication differences are one of the defining features of a larger constellation of subclinical traits indicative of genetic liability in ASD, termed the Broad Autism Phenotype (BAP).  Exploring the cognitive mechanisms underlying these features of the BAP is crucial for understanding the development of social deficits in ASD as well as the identification of candidate endophenotypes, or heritable, subclinical traits with more straightforward ties to underlying biology than full clinical syndromes.  Individuals with ASD demonstrate atypical visual processing patterns that have been linked to severity of social deficits.  Recent research demonstrating that unaffected parents and siblings of individuals with ASD tend to show patterns of visual processing similar to their affected family members when viewing faces and brief videos of non-social stimuli suggests that allocation of visual attention may also underlie these features in the BAP (Adolphs, Spezio, Parlier & Piven, 2008; Groen et al., 2012; Dalton, Nacewicz, Alexander & Davidson, 2007). However, to our knowledge research has yet to explore perceptual processes during communicative acts.  Such research is needed to characterize how perceptual strategies ultimately guide the ways in which individuals navigate their social world, and, importantly, how these patterns may contribute to subclinical social differences observed in the BAP. 

Objectives:  

Using a unique narrative elicitation task, we sought to define patterns of visual gaze in parents of individuals of ASD when actively interpreting social stimuli, and to explore how these patterns related to features characteristic of the BAP. 

Methods:  

Using TobiiX60 software, we recorded the eye gaze of 90 parents of individuals with ASD and 25 IQ-matched controls as they narrated the wordless picture book Frog, Where Are You?. Traits previously described as constituting principal components of the BAP (social features, and rigidity/perfectionistic tendencies) were assessed in parents of individuals with ASD using the Modified Personality Assessment Scale.  Percent of time and fixations on areas of interest (i.e., socially salient features, and elements critical to the story’s theme) were examined across pages of the storybook and compared across groups. 

Results:  

Overall, parents of individuals with ASD did not differ significantly from control parents in patterns of fixations throughout their narratives (p>.05).  However, striking differences emerged in a subgroup of parents who displayed clinically-defined features of the BAP, who spent a lower proportion of time on faces and protagonists, and a greater proportion on inanimate objects, than BAP (-) parents and controls (F=4.056, F=4.951, F=4.810 all ps<.025). 

Conclusions:  

To our knowledge this study is the first to explore perceptual processing patterns during narration.  Consistent with previous findings, results suggest that subtle differences in visual attention to social stimuli may be an index of genetic liability in ASD.  Notably, our results also suggest that differences in perceptual processes may be specific to those parents showing clinical features of the BAP. Discussion will focus on the potential of gaze as an endophenotype in ASD as well as the complex relationship between perceptual processes and social and language features of the BAP.