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Rapid Automatized Naming As a Marker of Genetic Liability to Autism: An Eye Tracking Study
Objectives: To use eye tracking to examine underlying mechanistic processes of RAN abilities in individuals with ASD and their parents, and explore correlations with conceptually related clinical-behavioral phenotypes.
Methods: Fifty-five individuals with ASD, 43 controls, 136 parents of individuals with ASD, and 57 control parents completed RAN on an eye tracker. The RAN task involved quickly naming arrays of stimuli (letters, colors, numbers, objects). Naming time and errors were measured. Eye-tracking analyses included three indices of automaticity and efficiency: 1) EVS; 2) average saccades per vocalization; and 3) perseverative saccades, the number of repeated saccades made at the target or a previously-visited target during a vocalization. The BAP was measured in parents using the Modified Personality Assessment (Tyrer, 1988).
Results: Results indicate slower naming time and more errors in individuals with ASD and their parents (ps <.05), with differences in parents restricted to the less highly automated color and object trials. Eye movement analyses show smaller EVS in individuals with ASD (p <.01) and similar trends in their parents. Individuals with ASD and their parents made more perseverative saccades (ps <.05) than controls. Eye movement differences were evident specifically in the BAP(+) group, and predicted narrative ability in parents. In ASD, errors were associated with restricted and repetitive behaviors (RRBs) and errors and saccadic patterns were associated with poorer pragmatic language and narrative abilities (ps <.05).
Conclusions: Differences in RAN performance and associated eye movements indicate reduced automaticity in ASD and the BAP. This illustrates the reliance on greater attentional and executive resources during language processing among these groups. Further, associations between RAN time, errors, and perseverative saccades were associated with rigid personality traits in parents and restricted and repetitive behaviors in their children, highlighting perseverative tendencies commonly implicated in ASD (Hill 2004). Together, results suggest that reduced automaticity is associated with downstream cognitive indices of executive flexibility and language, emphasizing automaticity as a critical precursor to complex language skills and a potential indicator of genetic liability to ASD.