Eye Tracking Shows Autistic Children Prefer Geometric Patterns

Eye tracking technology has once again proved to be a valuable tool for studying autism in children. The recent study was published last week in the Archives of General Psychiatry. Researchers from the University of California San Diego completed a study in which children between the ages of 14 and 42 months were tested for signs of autism. The team found that toddlers with autism tended to spend more time visually examining a dynamic geometric pattern than a series of social images.

For the study, 110 toddlers were seated on their mother’s laps to watch a 1-minute movie that showed geometric patterns and shapes moving from one side of a screen to the other. Another screen alongside showed images of kids doing yoga and dancing. The children were equipped with eye tracking devices, which featured infrared light bouncing off their eye and reflecting their gaze. The gaze direction and duration were measured as the toddler looked at each of the two screens. It turned out that the dynamic, geometric patterns tended to absorb autistic children’s attention, while those without autism focused on the opposite screen showing the social images.

Toddlers who spent more than 69 percent of their time gazing at the geometric images could be accurately classified as having an autism spectrum disorder. Of the 51 typical infants observed, there was only 1 that preferred to look at the geometric images. Yet not all the autistic toddlers preferred the geometric patterns – 40 percent of autistic toddlers were determined “geometric responders.” The other 60 percent tended towards the typical and developmentally delayed groups, choosing dynamic social images.

“What an infant prefers to look at given a choice between two images may turn out to be a more clearly observable indicator of autism risk than how he or she looks at a single image,” says Karen Pierce, a PhD and assistant professor in the UCSD department of neurosciences. Pierce was in charge of the study which showed the autistic children’s tendency to fixate on what was essentially a PC screensaver. “Among toddlers who strongly prefer geometric patterns,” she said, “we found that –almost 100 percent of the time – those children developed an autism spectrum disorder.”

Not to worry, she says. There’s no need to be alarmed if your child does stare at the screensaver, but it’s important to be mindful of how much time they are staring. Warning signs for autism include reduced enjoyment while playing back and forth games (peek –a-boo), an unusual tone in a child’s voice, or a lack of pointing or retrieving objects to show.

Visual Pattern Preferences May be Sign of Autism in Children

Related articles:

1. Eye Tracking Studies Effect of Motion on Autistic Infants
2. Eye Tracking Exploring the Gaze Attention of Autistic Children
3. Eye Tracking Expanding Autism Research
4. Pupil Tracking Could Lead to Early Intervention for Infants With Autism
5. Framework for Eye Tracking Patterns and Usability Problems: Pt 4
6. Eye Tracking Trends In Computer Graphics: pt 1