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Cited by 131Face Recognition and PerceptionAutism Spectrum Disorder ResearchAction Observation and Synchronization

Does the perception of moving eyes trigger reflexive visual orienting in autism?

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Swettenham, John, Condie, Samantha, Campbell, Ruth, Milne, Elizabeth, Coleman, Mike·2003·Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences
DOI 10.1098/rstb.2002.1203PMC PMC1693118
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Abstract

Does movement of the eyes in one or another direction function as an automatic attentional cue to a location of interest? Two experiments explored the directional movement of the eyes in a full face for speed of detection of an aftercoming location target in young people with autism and in control participants. Our aim was to investigate whether a low-level perceptual impairment underlies the delay in gaze following characteristic of autism. The participants' task was to detect a target appearing on the left or right of the screen either 100 ms or 800 ms after a face cue appeared with eyes averting to the left or right. Despite instructions to ignore eye-movement in the face cue, people with autism and control adolescents were quicker to detect targets that had been preceded by an eye movement cue congruent with target location compared with targets preceded by an incongruent eye movement cue. The attention shifts are thought to be reflexive because the cue was to be ignored, and because the effect was found even when cue-target duration was short (100 ms). Because (experiment two) the effect persisted even when the face was inverted, it would seem that the direction of movement of eyes can provide a powerful (involuntary) cue to a location.

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  • In Swettenham et al. (2003), the cueing effects were also apparent when the face was presented upside down.

    “The effects were also apparent when the face was presented upside down.”

    From Vision in autism spectrum disorders (2009) · cites this paper as Swettenham et al. (2003)

  • In Swettenham et al. (2003), both control and ASD groups were unable to resist following the cue given by the eyes of a face to a subsequently presented target, even though the cue was invalid 50% of the time.

    “Both their control and their ASD groups were unable to resist following the cue given by the eyes of a face to a subsequently presented target, even though the cue was invalid 50% of the time.”

    From Vision in autism spectrum disorders (2009) · cites this paper as Swettenham et al. (2003)

  • Swettenham et al. (2003) demonstrated that reflexive orienting is intact in older children with ASD (mean age 10 years).

    “Swettenham, Condie, Campbell, Milne, and Coleman (2003) demonstrated that reflexive orienting is intact in older children with ASD (mean age 10 years).”

    From Vision in autism spectrum disorders (2009) · cites this paper as Swettenham et al. (2003)

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Research works printed but not linked: 4

  1. American Psychiatric Association 1994 Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders , 4th Edition (DSM-IV). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association.
  2. Burack, J. A., Enns, J. T., Stauder, J. E. A., Mottron, L. & Randolph, B. 1997 Attention and autism: behavioural and electrophysiological evidence. In Handbook of autism and developmental disorders , 2nd edn (ed. D. J. Cohen & F. R. Volkmar), pp. 226-247. New York: Wiley.
  3. Frith, U. 1989 Autism: explaining the enigma . Oxford, UK: Blackwell Science.
  4. Jonides, J. 1981 Voluntary versus automatic control over mind's eye movement. In Attention and performance , vol. 9 (ed. J. Long & A. Baddely), pp. 187-203. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

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Authors
Swettenham, J., Condie, S., Campbell, R., Milne, E., & Coleman, M.
Affiliations
University College London (GB)
Corresponding author
Swettenham, John
ORCID
Venue
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences
Publisher
The Royal Society
Published
2003-02-28
Volume
358
Issue
1430
Pages
325-334
ISSN
  • 0962-8436 (ISSN-L)
  • 1471-2970
DOI
10.1098/rstb.2002.1203
PMC
PMC1693118
OpenAlex
W2153684761
Cited by
130
References
60
Citations by year
2025: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 2 · 2015: 9 · 2014: 4 · 2013: 11 · 2012: 15
FWCI
2.93
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/ (tdm)
Locations
  • Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
Funders
Economic and Social Research Council
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Face Recognition and Perception
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Autism Spectrum Disorder Research
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Action Observation and Synchronization
Keywords
autism spectrum disorder, gaze following, visual orienting, reflexive attention, attentional cueing, face perception, face inversion, perceptual impairment
MeSH terms
Attention, Autistic Disorder, Child, Eye Movements, Face, Fixation, Ocular, Humans, Orientation, Reflex, Visual Perception

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