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Inhibition of Return in Response to Eye Gaze and Peripheral Cues in Young People with Asperger’s Syndrome

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Abstract

Inhibition of return (IOR) reflects slower reaction times to stimuli presented in previously attended locations. In this study, we examined this inhibitory after-effect using two different cue types, eye-gaze and standard peripheral cues, in individuals with Asperger’s syndrome and typically developing individuals. Typically developing participants showed evidence of IOR for both eye-gaze and peripheral cues. In contrast, the Asperger group showed evidence of IOR to previously peripherally cued locations but failed to show IOR for eye-gaze cues. This absence of IOR for eye-gaze cues observed in the participants with Asperger may reflect an attentional impairment in responding to socially relevant information.

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Notes

  1. While our results suggested an absence of IOR to eye-gaze cues in the Asperger group, the possibility of a delayed IOR response to eye-gaze cues cannot be ruled out, as Asperger individuals might require longer SOA intervals for IOR to eye-gaze cues. Although further research is necessary to shed light upon this issue, the fact that Asperger individuals not only did not show IOR for gaze cues but did show a marginal facilitatory effect makes unlikely that they would show IOR with a longer than 2,400 ms SOA.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank all the children, parents, teachers, and the primary school “Istituto Ugo Bartolomei” and the secondary school “Istituto Giuseppe Sinopoli. We would also like to thank all the children with Asperger’s disorder and their parents, the Dr. Flavia Caretto and the “Gruppo Asperger” Association, with particular regard to Miss. Laura Imbimbo and Miss. Adina Adami.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, “Sapienza” University of Rome, Via dei Marsi, 78, 00185, Rome, Italy

    Andrea Marotta, Sabrina Ruggiero, Lisa Maccari & Maria Casagrande

  2. Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Via Montpellier 1, 00133, Rome, Italy

    Augusto Pasini & Caterina Rosa

  3. Departamento de Psicología Experimental y Fisiología del Comportamiento, Universidad de Granada, Campus Universitario Cartuja s/n, 18071, Granada, Spain

    Juan Lupiáñez

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  1. Andrea Marotta
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  2. Augusto Pasini
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  3. Sabrina Ruggiero
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  4. Lisa Maccari
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  5. Caterina Rosa
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  6. Juan Lupiáñez
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  7. Maria Casagrande
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Correspondence to Maria Casagrande.

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Marotta, A., Pasini, A., Ruggiero, S. et al. Inhibition of Return in Response to Eye Gaze and Peripheral Cues in Young People with Asperger’s Syndrome. J Autism Dev Disord 43, 917–923 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-012-1636-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-012-1636-3

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