Visual orienting in the early broader autism phenotype: disengagement and facilitation
Open accessAbstract
Background: Recent studies of infant siblings of children diagnosed with autism have allowed for a prospective approach to examine the emergence of symptoms and revealed behavioral differences in the broader autism phenotype within the early years. In the current study we focused on a set of functions associated with visual attention, previously reported to be atypical in autism. Method: We compared performance of a group of 9–10‐month‐old infant siblings of children with autism to a control group with no family history of autism on the ‘gap‐overlap task’, which measures the cost of disengaging from a central stimulus in order to fixate a peripheral one. Two measures were derived on the basis of infants’ saccadic reaction times. The first is the Disengagement effect, which measures the efficiency of disengaging from a central stimulus to orient to a peripheral one. The second was a Facilitation effect, which arises when the infant is cued by a temporal gap preceding the onset of the peripheral stimulus, and would orient faster after its onset. Results and conclusion: Infant siblings of children with autism showed longer Disengagement latencies as well as less Facilitation relative to the control group. The findings are discussed in relation to how differences in visual attention may relate to characteristics observed in autism and the broader phenotype.
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Atypical attentional function has been observed in infants at risk for ASD because they have an older sibling with ASD.
“Importantly, atypical attentional function has been shown in infants at-risk for ASD (at-risk due to having an older sibling diagnosed with ASD) (Elsabbagh et al., 2009; Zwaigenbaum et al., 2005), and may be one of the earliest characteristics that distinguish infants who later receive an ASD diagnosis (Zwaigenbaum et al., 2005).”
From Atypical attentional networks and the emergence of autism (2013) · cites this paper as Elsabbagh et al., 2009
Impaired disengagement has been demonstrated in low-functioning adults with ASD and at-risk infants.
“Impaired disengagement has also been demonstrated in low-functioning adults with ASD (Kawakubo et al., 2007) and at-risk infants (Elsabbagh et al., 2009; Zwaigenbaum et al., 2005).”
From Atypical attentional networks and the emergence of autism (2013) · cites this paper as Elsabbagh et al., 2009
Impaired disengagement is the earliest attentional deficit reported in infants at risk for ASD.
“Because impaired disengagement is the earliest attentional deficit reported in infants at-risk for ASD (Elsabbagh et al., 2009; Zwaigenbaum et al., 2005)”
From Atypical attentional networks and the emergence of autism (2013) · cites this paper as Elsabbagh et al., 2009
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- Authors
- Elsabbagh, M., Volein, A., Holmboe, K., Tucker, L., Csibra, G., Baron‐Cohen, S., Bolton, P., Charman, T., Baird, G., & Johnson, M. H.
- Affiliations
- University of London (GB)
- Birkbeck, University of London (GB)
- University of Cambridge (GB)
- King's College London (GB)
- University College London (GB)
- Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Elsabbagh, Mayada
- ORCID
- Venue
- Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2009-04-21
- Volume
- 50
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 637-642
- ISSN
- 0021-9630 (ISSN-L)
- 1469-7610
- PMC
- PMC3272379
- OpenAlex
- W2168465204
- Cited by
- 279
- References
- 38
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 14 · 2023: 14 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 14 · 2020: 47 · 2019: 14 · 2018: 14 · 2017: 18 · 2016: 17 · 2015: 18 · 2014: 19 · 2013: 30 · 2012: 17
- FWCI
- 6.94
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- BIROn (Birkbeck, University of London) (submittedVersion)
- UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
- Research Portal (King's College London) (submittedVersion)
- Open Access at Essex (University of Essex) (submittedVersion)
- Bristol Research (University of Bristol) (submittedVersion)
- Explore Bristol Research (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Autism Speaks (AS1584, AS1292)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Autism Spectrum Disorder Research
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Child and Animal Learning Development
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Face Recognition and Perception
- Keywords
- broader autism phenotype, visual orienting, visual attention, attentional disengagement, saccade latency, autism risk
- MeSH terms
- Autistic Disorder, Female, Humans, Infant, Male, Orientation, Photic Stimulation, Space Perception, Time Factors, Visual Perception, Siblings, Early Diagnosis
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