Introduction: Joint attention ( JA) is a fundamental aspect of social
interaction and a cornerstone of social communication. This study
explores factors influencing JA in adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder
(ASD) using an interactive, dual eye-tracking paradigm during a tangram
puzzle computer gameplay. The JA performance of adults with ASD and
a typically developing non-clinical control group (TD-NCC) was assessed
alongside partner familiarity (familiar / stranger), partner roles (presenter
/ operator) and gaze cue (present / absent). Two main objectives were:
1) to evaluate JA through gaze recurrence (GR) in adults with ASD, and
2) to examine the effect of partner familiarity on JA by comparing the
performance in the task conducted with either a familiar or an unfamiliar
partner (stranger).
Methods: The sample consisted of 42 participants (21 adults with
ASD; ages 18–50, 9 females and 12 males and 21 TD-NCC; ages 21–50,
11 females and 10 males). Two non-intrusive desktop eye trackers
simultaneously recorded gaze during the JA tangram task. Gaze
recurrence was used as an indicator of JA. The gaze cue (present/absent)
was a semi-transparent indicator showing where to look. Additionally,
to control for potential eye pathophysiology in JA, saccade and antisaccade
tasks were applied to the eye movements of each participant.
Results: The Linear Mixed Effect Model revealed that GR was
significantly lower in the ASD group compared to controls. However,
the presence of a gaze cue significantly improved the ASD group’s GR,
especially when interacting with a familiar partner under gaze-cue on
conditions.
Conclusion: Understanding factors influencing JA in autism may foster
further exploratory studies and significantly impact future research.
Eye movements may serve as objective, quantitative, and non-invasive
biomarkers for ASD, particularly in interactive gaming contexts.
Keywords: Autism spectrum disorder, dual tracking, eye movements,
gaze recurrence, joint attention