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Brief Report: Circumscribed Attention in Young Children with Autism

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Abstract

School-aged children and adolescents with autism demonstrate circumscribed attentional patterns to nonsocial aspects of complex visual arrays (Sasson et al. 2008). The current study downward extended these findings to a sample of 2–5 year-olds with autism and 2–5 year-old typically developing children. Eye-tracking was used to quantify discrete aspects of visual attention to picture arrays containing combinations of social pictures, pictures of objects frequently involved in circumscribed interests in persons with autism (e.g., trains), and pictures of more commonplace objects (e.g., clothing). The children with autism exhibited greater exploration and perseverative attention on objects related to circumscribed interests than did typically developing children. Results suggest that circumscribed attention may be an early emerging characteristic of autism.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by R01 MH073402 (Bodfish). L.M. Turner-Brown was supported by NICHD T32-HD40127. G Dichter was supported by K23 MH081285. Assistance for this study was provided by Kristin S. L. Lam, Tia Holtzclaw, and the Subject Registry Core of the UNC Neurodevelopmental Disorders Research Center (P30 HD03110).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, University of Texas at Dallas, GR41 800 West Campbell Road, Richardson, TX, 75080, USA

    Noah J. Sasson

  2. Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, CB# 3366, 101 Manning Drive, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599-7160, USA

    Jed T. Elison, Lauren M. Turner-Brown, Gabriel S. Dichter & James W. Bodfish

  3. Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Arts and Sciences, CB# 3270, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599-3270, USA

    Jed T. Elison

  4. Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, CB# 7160, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599-7160, USA

    Gabriel S. Dichter & James W. Bodfish

  5. Duke-UNC Brain Imaging and Analysis Center, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, 27710, USA

    Gabriel S. Dichter

  6. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University Medical Center, Box 3026, Durham, NC, 27710, USA

    Gabriel S. Dichter

  7. Center for Development and Learning, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, CB # 7255, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599-7255, USA

    James W. Bodfish

Authors
  1. Noah J. Sasson
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  2. Jed T. Elison
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  3. Lauren M. Turner-Brown
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  4. Gabriel S. Dichter
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  5. James W. Bodfish
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Correspondence to Noah J. Sasson.

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Sasson, N.J., Elison, J.T., Turner-Brown, L.M. et al. Brief Report: Circumscribed Attention in Young Children with Autism. J Autism Dev Disord 41, 242–247 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-010-1038-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-010-1038-3

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