Abstract
This review aimed to (a) identify gaze metrics and behavioral assessments used in eye-tracking studies investigating social communication skills of young autistic children and (b) examine the reported correlation between gaze behaviors and social communication skills. We conducted a systematic search process following the PRISMA statement. A total of 19 studies were included in this review. Collectively, six gaze metrics were quantified to describe gaze behaviors, and 10 behavioral assessments of social communication skills or autism characteristics were identified, which were subsequently analyzed by respective stimulus categories. The overall findings from studies that employed semi-naturalistic stimuli suggested that increased social attention, as well as fixating closer to fixation of neurotypical children, is related to better social communication skills of young autistic children. In addition, the overall findings from studies that employed non-semi-naturalistic or live-interaction stimuli suggested that more engagement in gaze movements between shared interests is related to better social communication skills of young autistic children. Findings have implications for early identification and intervention in autism and highlight the need for further research examining factors that may have contributed to some mixed findings on the relation between gaze behaviors and social communication skills.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
*indicates articles that were included in this review
Aman, M. G., Singh, N. N., Stewart, A. W., & Field, C. (1985). The Aberrant Behavior Checklist: A behavior rating scale for the assessment of treatment effects. American Journal of Mental Deficiency, 89(5), 485-491.
American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.books.9780890425596
Astor, K., & Gredebäck, G. (2019). Gaze following in 4.5- and 6-month-old infants: The impact of proximity on standard gaze following performance tests. Infancy, 24(1), 79–89. https://doi.org/10.1111/infa.12261
Bacon, E. C., Moore, A., Lee, Q., Barnes, C. C., Courchesne, E., & Pierce, K. (2020). Identifying prognostic markers in autism spectrum disorder using eye tracking. Autism: The International Journal of Research and Practice, 24(3), 658–669. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362361319878578
*Bedford, R., the BASIS team, Elsabbagh, M., Gliga, T., Pickles, A., Senju, A., Charman, T., & Johnson, M. H. (2012). Precursors to social and communication difficulties in infants at-risk for autism: Gaze following and attentional engagement. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 42(10), 2208–2218. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-012-1450-y
*Billeci, L., ALERT group, Narzisi, A., Campatelli, G., Crifaci, G., Calderoni, S., Gagliano, A., Calzone, C., Colombi, C., Pioggia, G., & Muratori, F. (2016). Disentangling the initiation from the response in joint attention: An eye-tracking study in toddlers with autism spectrum disorders. Translational Psychiatry, 6(5), e808–e808. https://doi.org/10.1038/tp.2016.75
Birmingham, E., & Kingstone, A. (2009). Human social attention. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1156, 118–140. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-6632.2009.04468.x
Blatter, K., & Schultz, W. (2006). Rewarding properties of visual stimuli. Experimental Brain Research, 168(4), 541–546.
Bone, D., Bishop, S. L., Black, M. P., Goodwin, M. S., Lord, C., & Narayanan, S. S. (2016). Use of machine learning to improve autism screening and diagnostic instruments: Effectiveness, efficiency, and multi-instrument fusion. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 57(8), 927–937. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.12559
Boraston, Z., & Blakemore, S.-J. (2007). The application of eye-tracking technology in the study of autism: Z. Boraston and S.-J. Blakemore. The Journal of Physiology, 581(3), 893–898. https://doi.org/10.1113/jphysiol.2007.133587
Boraston, Z. L., Corden, B., Miles, L. K., Skuse, D. H., & Blakemore, S. J. (2008). Brief report: Perception of genuine and posed smiles by individuals with autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 38(3), 574–580. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-007-0421-1
Bradshaw, J., Shic, F., & Chawarska, K. (2011). Brief report: Face-specific recognition deficits in young children with autism spectrum disorders. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 41(10), 1429–1435. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-010-1150-4
Braithwaite, E. K., Gui, A., & Jones, E. J. H. (2020). Social attention: What is it, how can we measure it, and what can it tell us about autism and ADHD? Progress in Brain Research (Vol. 254, pp. 271–303). Elsevier.
Cañigueral, R., & Hamilton, A. F. D. C. (2019). The role of eye gaze during natural social interactions in typical and autistic people. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 560. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00560
Chandler, S., Charman, T., Baird, G., Simonoff, E., Loucas, T., Meldrum, D., Scott, M., & Pickles, A. (2007). Validation of the social communication questionnaire in a population cohort of children with autism spectrum disorders. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 46(10), 1324–1332. https://doi.org/10.1097/chi.0b013e31812f7d8d
Chawarska, K., Macari, S., & Shic, F. (2013). Decreased spontaneous attention to social scenes in 6-month-old infants later diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders. Biological Psychiatry, 74(3), 195–203. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2012.11.022
* Chawarska, K., Macari, S., & Shic, F. (2012). Context modulates attention to social scenes in toddlers with autism: Context modulates social attention in autism. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 53(8), 903–913. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7610.2012.02538.x
*Chawarska, K., Macari, S., Powell, K., DiNicola, L., & Shic, F. (2016). Enhanced social attention in female infant siblings at risk for autism. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 55(3), 188-195.e1. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2015.11.016
Chevallier, C., Kohls, G., Troiani, V., Brodkin, E. S., & Schultz, R. T. (2012). The social motivation theory of autism. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 16(4), 231–239. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2012.02.007
Chevallier, C., Parish-Morris, J., McVey, A., Rump, K. M., Sasson, N. J., Herrington, J. D., & Schultz, R. T. (2015). Measuring social attention and motivation in autism spectrum disorder using eye-tracking: Stimulus type matters: Stimulus matters. Autism Research, 8(5), 620–628. https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.1479
Chita-Tegmark, M. (2016). Social attention in ASD: A review and meta-analysis of eye-tracking studies. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 48, 79–93. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ridd.2015.10.011
Cilia, F., Aubry, A., Le Driant, B., Bourdin, B., & Vandromme, L. (2019). Visual exploration of dynamic or static joint attention bids in children with autism syndrome disorder. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 2187. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02187
Cohen, I. L., Schmidt-Lackner, S., Romanczyk, R., & Sudhalter, V. (2003). The PDD Behavior Inventory: A rating scale for assessing response to intervention in children with pervasive developmental disorder. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 33(1), 31–45.
Coulter, K. L., Moreno, P., Barton, M., Dumont-Mathieu, T., Robins, D. L., & Fein, D. A. (2022). Validity of the toddler autism symptom inventory in non-Hispanic White and Black toddlers. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-022-05756-z
Dawson, G., Munson, J., Estes, A., Osterling, J., McPartland, J., Toth, K., Carver, L., & Abbott, R. (2002). Neurocognitive function and joint attention ability in young children with autism spectrum disorder versus developmental delay. Child Development, 73(2), 345–358. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8624.00411
Dawson, G., Webb, S. J., & McPartland, J. (2005). Understanding the nature of face processing impairment in autism: Insights from behavioral and electrophysiological studies. Developmental Neuropsychology, 27(3), 403–424. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15326942dn2703_6
Dawson, G., Bernier, R., & Ring, R. H. (2012). Social attention: A possible early indicator of efficacy in autism clinical trials. Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders, 4(1), 11. https://doi.org/10.1186/1866-1955-4-11
*Elsabbagh, M., Bedford, R., Senju, A., Charman, T., Pickles, A., Johnson, M. H., & The BASIS Team. (2014). What you see is what you get: Contextual modulation of face scanning in typical and atypical development. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 9(4), 538–543. https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nst012
Emery, N. J. (2000). The eyes have it: The neuroethology, function and evolution of social gaze. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 24(6), 581–604. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0149-7634(00)00025-7
Falck-Ytter, T. (2015). Gaze performance during face-to-face communication: A live eye tracking study of typical children and children with autism. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 17, 78–85. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rasd.2015.06.007
Falck-Ytter, T., Bölte, S., & Gredebäck, G. (2013). Eye tracking in early autism research. Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders, 5(1), 28. https://doi.org/10.1186/1866-1955-5-28
*Falck-Ytter, T., Fernell, E., Hedvall, Å. L., von Hofsten, C., & Gillberg, C. (2012). Gaze performance in children with autism spectrum disorder when observing communicative actions. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 42(10), 2236–2245. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-012-1471-6
*Franchini, M., Glaser, B., Gentaz, E., Wood, H., Eliez, S., & Schaer, M. (2017). The effect of emotional intensity on responses to joint attention in preschoolers with an autism spectrum disorder. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 35, 13–24. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rasd.2016.11.010
Frazier, T. W., Klingemier, E. W., Beukemann, M., Speer, L., Markowitz, L., Parikh, S., Wexberg, S., Giuliano, K., Schulte, E., Delahunty, C., Ahuja, V., Eng, C., Manos, M. J., Hardan, A. Y., Youngstrom, E. A., & Strauss, M. S. (2016). Development of an objective autism risk index using remote eye tracking. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 55(4), 301–309. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2016.01.011
Frazier, T. W., Strauss, M., Klingemier, E. W., Zetzer, E. E., Hardan, A. Y., Eng, C., & Youngstrom, E. A. (2017). A meta-analysis of gaze differences to social and nonsocial information between individuals with and without autism. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 56(7), 546–555. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2017.05.005
Frazier, T. W., Klingemier, E. W., Parikh, S., Speer, L., Strauss, M. S., Eng, C., Hardan, A. Y., & Youngstrom, E. A. (2018). Development and validation of objective and quantitative eye tracking−based measures of autism risk and symptom levels. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 57(11), 858–866. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2018.06.023
Frischen, A., Bayliss, A. P., & Tipper, S. P. (2007). Gaze cueing of attention. Psychological Bulletin, 133(4), 694–724. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.133.4.694
Gannon, C. E., Britton, T. C., Wilkinson, E. H., & Hall, S. S. (2018). Improving social gaze behavior in fragile X syndrome using a behavioral skills training approach: A proof of concept study. Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders, 10, 25. https://doi.org/10.1186/s11689-018-9243-z
Gredebäck, G., Astor, K., & Fawcett, C. (2018). Gaze following is not dependent on ostensive cues: A critical test of natural pedagogy. Child Development, 89(6), 2091–2098. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13026
Griffin, J. W., & Scherf, K. S. (2020). Does decreased visual attention to faces underlie difficulties interpreting eye gaze cues in autism? Molecular Autism, 11(1), 60. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13229-020-00361-2
Guillon, Q., Hadjikhani, N., Baduel, S., & Rogé, B. (2014). Visual social attention in autism spectrum disorder: Insights from eye tracking studies. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 42, 279–297. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2014.03.013
Hanley, M., McPhillips, M., Mulhern, G., & Riby, D. M. (2013). Spontaneous attention to faces in Asperger syndrome using ecologically valid static stimuli. Autism, 17(6), 754–761. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362361312456746
Hessels, R. S. (2020). How does gaze to faces support face-to-face interaction? A review and perspective. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 27(5), 856–881. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-020-01715-w
Hessels, R. S., Holleman, G. A., Cornelissen, T. H. W., Hooge, I. T. C., & Kemner, C. (2018). Eye contact takes two – autistic and social anxiety traits predict gaze behavior in dyadic interaction. Journal of Experimental Psychopathology, 9(2), jep.062917. https://doi.org/10.5127/jep.062917
Itier, R. J., & Batty, M. (2009). Neural bases of eye and gaze processing: The core of social cognition. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 33(6), 843–863. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2009.02.004
*Jones, W., Carr, K., & Klin, A. (2008). Absence of preferential looking to the eyes of approaching adults predicts level of social disability in 2-year-old toddlers with autism spectrum disorder. Arch Gen Psychiatry, 65(8), 9
Kasari, C., Locke, J., Gulsrud, A., & Rotheram-Fuller, E. (2011). Social networks and friendships at school: Comparing children with and without ASD. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 41(5), 533–544. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-010-1076-x
Kasari, C., Rotheram-Fuller, E., Locke, J., & Gulsrud, A. (2012). Making the connection: Randomized controlled trial of social skills at school for children with autism spectrum disorders. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 53(4), 431–439. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7610.2011.02493.x
Klin, A., Jones, W., Schultz, R., Volkmar, F., & Cohen, D. (2002). Defining and quantifying the social phenotype in autism. American Journal of Psychiatry, 159(6), 895–908. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.159.6.895
Krug, D. A., Arick, J., & Almond, P. (1980). Behavior checklist for identifying severely handicapped individuals with high levels of autistic behavior. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 21(3), 221–229. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7610.1980.tb01797.x
*Kwon, M.-K., Moore, A., Barnes, C. C., Cha, D., & Pierce, K. (2019). Typical levels of eye-region fixation in toddlers with autism spectrum disorder across multiple contexts. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 58(10), 1004–1015. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2018.12.011
*Laidlaw, K. E. W., Foulsham, T., Kuhn, G., & Kingstone, A. (2011). Potential social interactions are important to social attention. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108(14), 5548–5553. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1017022108
*Latrèche, K., Kojovic, N., Franchini, M., & Schaer, M. (2021). Attention to face as a predictor of developmental change and treatment outcome in young children with autism spectrum disorder. Biomedicines, 9(8), 942. https://doi.org/10.3390/biomedicines9080942
Lord, C., Rutter, M., & Le Couteur, A. (1994). Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised: A revised version of a diagnostic interview for caregivers of individuals with possible pervasive developmental disorders. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 24(5), 659–685. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02172145
Lord, C., Rutter, M., DiLavore, P. C., Risi, S., Gotham, K., & Bishop, S. L. (2012). Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule, second edition (ADOS-2) modules 1–4. Western Psychological Services.
Loth, E., Charman, T., Mason, L., Tillmann, J., Jones, E. J. H., Wooldridge, C., Ahmad, J., Auyeung, B., Brogna, C., Ambrosino, S., Banaschewski, T., Baron-Cohen, S., Baumeister, S., Beckmann, C., Brammer, M., Brandeis, D., Bölte, S., Bourgeron, T., Bours, C., … Buitelaar, J. K. (2017). The EU-AIMS Longitudinal European Autism Project (LEAP): Design and methodologies to identify and validate stratification biomarkers for autism spectrum disorders. Molecular Autism, 8(1), 24. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13229-017-0146-8
Mastergeorge, A. M., Kahathuduwa, C., & Blume, J. (2021). Eye-tracking in infants and young children at risk for autism spectrum disorder: A systematic review of visual stimuli in experimental paradigms. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 51(8), 2578–2599. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-020-04731-w
McParland, A., Gallagher, S., & Keenan, M. (2021). Investigating gaze behaviour of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders in a classroom setting. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 51(12), 4663–4678. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-021-04906-z
Miller, L. E., Perkins, K. A., Dai, Y. G., & Fein, D. A. (2017). Comparison of parent report and direct assessment of child skills in toddlers. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 41–42, 57–65. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rasd.2017.08.002
Mundy, P. (2018). A review of joint attention and social-cognitive brain systems in typical development and autism spectrum disorder. European Journal of Neuroscience, 47(6), 497–514. https://doi.org/10.1111/ejn.13720
Mundy, P., & Bullen, J. (2022). The bidirectional social-cognitive mechanisms of the social-attention symptoms of autism. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 12, 752274. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.752274
Mundy, P., & Newell, L. (2007). Attention, joint attention, and social cognition. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 16(5), 269–274. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8721.2007.00518.x
Mundy, P., Delgado, C., Block, J., Venezia, M., Hogan, A., & Seibert, J. (2003). A manual for the abridged Early Social Communication Scales (ESCS). University of Miami.
Mundy, P., Block, J., Delgado, C., Pomares, Y., Van Hecke, A. V., & Parlade, M. V. (2007). Individual differences and the development of joint attention in infancy. Child Development, 78(3), 938–954. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2007.01042.x
Mundy, P., Sullivan, L., & Mastergeorge, A. M. (2009). A parallel and distributed-processing model of joint attention, social cognition and autism. Autism Research, 2(1), 2–21. https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.61
Murias, M., Major, S., Davlantis, K., Franz, L., Harris, A., Rardin, B., Sabatos-DeVito, M., & Dawson, G. (2018). Validation of eye-tracking measures of social attention as a potential biomarker for autism clinical trials: Utilizing eye-tracking as a social communication biomarker for ASD. Autism Research, 11(1), 166–174. https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.1894
*Navab, A., Gillespie-Lynch, K., Johnson, S. P., Sigman, M., & Hutman, T. (2012). Eye-tracking as a measure of responsiveness to joint attention in infants at risk for autism: Joint attention in high-risk infants. Infancy, 17(4), 416–431. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1532-7078.2011.00082.x
*Nyström, P., Thorup, E., Bölte, S., & Falck-Ytter, T. (2019). Joint attention in infancy and the emergence of autism. Biological Psychiatry, 86(8), 631–638. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2019.05.006
Ohya, T., Morita, K., Yamashita, Y., Egami, C., Ishii, Y., Nagamitsu, S., & Matsuishi, T. (2014). Impaired exploratory eye movements in children with Asperger’s syndrome. Brain and Development, 36(3), 241–247. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.braindev.2013.04.005
Page, M. J., Moher, D., Bossuyt, P. M., Boutron, I., Hoffmann, T. C., Mulrow, C. D., Shamseer, L., Tetzlaff, J., Akl, E., Brennan, S., Chou, R., Glanville, J., Grimshaw, J., Hrobjartsson, A., Lalu, M., Li, T., Loder, E., Mayo-Wilson, E., McDonald, S., McGuinness, L., Steward, L., Thomas, J., Tricco, A., Welch, V., Whiting, P., & McKenzie, J. E. (2021). PRISMA 2020 explanation and elaboration: Updated guidance and exemplars for reporting systematic reviews. BMJ, 372. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n160.
Papagiannopoulou, E. A., Chitty, K. M., Hermens, D. F., Hickie, I. B., & Lagopoulos, J. (2014). A systematic review and meta-analysis of eye-tracking studies in children with autism spectrum disorders. Social Neuroscience, 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1080/17470919.2014.934966
Pierce, K., Marinero, S., Hazin, R., McKenna, B., Barnes, C. C., & Malige, A. (2016). Eye-tracking reveals abnormal visual preference for geometric images as an early biomarker of an ASD subtype associated with increased symptom severity. Biological Psychiatry, 79(8), 657–666. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2015.03.032
Reynolds, G. D., & Romano, A. C. (2016). The development of attention systems and working memory in infancy. Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience, 10, 15. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnsys.2016.00015
Riby, D., & Hancock, P. J. B. (2009). Looking at movies and cartoons: Eye-tracking evidence from Williams syndrome and autism. Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, 53(2), 169–181. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2788.2008.01142.x
Rice, K., Moriuchi, J. M., Jones, W., & Klin, A. (2012). Parsing heterogeneity in autism spectrum disorders: Visual scanning of dynamic social scenes in school-aged children. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 51(3), 238–248. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2011.12.017
Riddiford, J. A., Enticott, P. G., Lavale, A., & Gurvich, C. (2022). Gaze and social functioning associations in autism spectrum disorder: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Autism Research, 15(8), 1380–1446. https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.2729
Risko, E. F., Laidlaw, K., Freeth, M., Foulsham, T., & Kingstone, A. (2012). Social attention with real versus reel stimuli: Toward an empirical approach to concerns about ecological validity. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 6, 143. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2012.00143
Robain, F., Godel, M., Kojovic, N., Franchini, M., Journal, F., & Schaer, M. (2022). Measuring social orienting in preschoolers with autism spectrum disorder using cartoons stimuli. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 156, 398–405. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2022.10.039
Robins, D. L., Casagrande, K., Barton, M., Chen, C.-M.A., & Fein, D. (2014). Validation of the Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers, Revised With Follow-up (M-CHAT-R/F). Pediatrics, 133(1), 9.
Salley, B., & Colombo, J. (2016). Conceptualizing social attention in developmental research: Social attention in developmental research. Social Development, 25(4), 687–703. https://doi.org/10.1111/sode.12174
Sasson, N. J., Pinkham, A. E., Weittenhiller, L. P., Faso, D. J., & Simpson, C. (2016). Context effects on facial affect recognition in schizophrenia and autism: Behavioral and eye-tracking evidence. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 42(3), 675–683. https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbv176
Senju, A., & Johnson, M. H. (2009). The eye contact effect: Mechanisms and development. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 13(3), 127–134. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2008.11.009
Sparrow, S. S., Cicchetti, D. V., & Balla, D. (2005). Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales-Second Edition (VABS-II). Pearson Clinical Assessment.
Speer, L. L., Cook, A. E., McMahon, W. M., & Clark, E. (2007). Face processing in children with autism: Effects of stimulus contents and type. Autism, 11(3), 265–277. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362361307076925
Striano, T., Chen, X., Cleveland, A., & Bradshaw, S. (2006). Joint attention social cues influence infant learning. European Journal of Developmental Psychology, 3(3), 289–299. https://doi.org/10.1080/17405620600879779
*Tenenbaum, E. J., Major, S., Carpenter, K. L. H., Howard, J., Murias, M., & Dawson, G. (2021). Distance from typical scan path when viewing complex stimuli in children with autism spectrum disorder and its association with behavior. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 51(10), 3492–3505. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-020-04812-w
Thorup, E., Nyström, P., Bölte, S., & Falck-Ytter, T. (2022). What are you looking at? Gaze following with and without target objects in ASD and typical development. Autism, 26(7), 1668–1680. https://doi.org/10.1177/13623613211061940
*Thorup, E., the EASE Team, Nyström, P., Gredebäck, G., Bölte, S., & Falck-Ytter, T. (2018). Reduced alternating gaze during social interaction in infancy is associated with elevated symptoms of autism in toddlerhood. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 46(7), 1547–1561. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-017-0388-0.
Unruh, K. E., Sasson, N. J., Shafer, R. L., Whitten, A., Miller, S. J., Turner-Brown, L., & Bodfish, J. W. (2016). Social orienting and attention is influenced by the presence of competing nonsocial information in adolescents with autism. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 10, 586. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2016.00586
Vacas, J., Antolí, A., Sánchez-Raya, A., Pérez-Dueñas, C., & Cuadrado, F. (2022). Social attention and autism in early childhood: Evidence on behavioral markers based on visual scanning of emotional faces with eye-tracking methodology. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 93, 101930. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rasd.2022.101930
*Vivanti, G., Trembath, D., & Dissanayake, C. (2014). Atypical monitoring and responsiveness to goal-directed gaze in autism spectrum disorder. Experimental Brain Research, 232(2), 695–701. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-013-3777-9.
*Vivanti, G., Hocking, D. R., Fanning, P., & Dissanayake, C. (2016a). Social affiliation motives modulate spontaneous learning in Williams syndrome but not in autism. Molecular Autism, 7(1), 40. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13229-016-0101-0.
*Vivanti, G., Hocking, D. R., Fanning, P., & Dissanayake, C. (2016b). Verbal labels increase the salience of novel objects for preschoolers with typical development and Williams syndrome, but not in autism. Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders, 8(1), 46. https://doi.org/10.1186/s11689-016-9180-7.
*Vivanti, G., Fanning, P. A. J., Hocking, D. R., Sievers, S., & Dissanayake, C. (2017). Social attention, joint attention and sustained attention in autism spectrum disorder and Williams syndrome: Convergences and divergences. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 47(6), 1866–1877. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-017-3106-4.
Wan, G., Kong, X., Sun, B., Yu, S., Tu, Y., Park, J., Lang, C., Koh, M., Wei, Z., Feng, Z., Lin, Y., & Kong, J. (2019). Applying eye tracking to identify autism spectrum disorder in children. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 49(1), 209–215. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-018-3690-y
Wang, S., Xu, J., Jiang, M., Zhao, Q., Hurlemann, R., & Adolphs, R. (2014). Autism spectrum disorder, but not amygdala lesions, impairs social attention in visual search. Neuropsychologia, 63, 259–274. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2014.09.002
*Wang, Q., Campbell, D. J., Macari, S. L., Chawarska, K., & Shic, F. (2018). Operationalizing atypical gaze in toddlers with autism spectrum disorders: A cohesion-based approach. Molecular Autism, 9(1), 25. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13229-018-0211-y
Weisberg, J., Milleville, S. C., Kenworthy, L., Wallace, G. L., Gotts, S. J., Beauchamp, M. S., & Martin, A. (2014). Social perception in autism spectrum disorders: Impaired category selectivity for dynamic but not static images in ventral temporal cortex. Cerebral Cortex., 24(1), 37–48.
Zoccolan, D., Graham, B. J., & Cox, D. D. (2010). A self-calibrating, camera-based eye tracker for the recording of rodent eye movements. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 4, 193. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2010.00193
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Informed Consent
Not applicable.
Conflict of Interest
The authors declare no competing interests.
Human Participants and/or Animals
Not applicable.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Supplementary Information
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Yoon, C.D., Terol, A.K., Meadan, H. et al. Gaze Behaviors and Social Communication Skills of Young Autistic Children: A Scoping Review. Rev J Autism Dev Disord (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40489-024-00438-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40489-024-00438-1