Autistic traits, attentional profile and the interpretation of facial expressions : an eye-tracking study

Context: Several studies found out that individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are impaired at processing emotional facial expressions. Cognitive, social and visuospatial theories alone cannot fully explain the deficits. The aim of the present thesis is therefore to find out whether visual attention on faces could account for emotional facial expression impairments. Methodology: To test the hypotheses whether (1) individuals with higher autism traits look less at the eyes and (2) if the attentional profile impacts on the interpretation of facial expressions, 47 students have been tested in an eye tracking study. The task consisted in viewing pictures of emotional, unemotional and ambiguous expressions and to judge whether they were emotional or not. Results: A significant negative correlation between autism traits and attention on eyes has been found. Linear regression analyses highlighted significant main effects of autism traits and of attention to the mouth. However, autism traits and attentional profile did not interact one with another. Conclusion: Results are discussed in terms of the importance of the visual attentional profile on the perception of facial expressions and its implications for intervention.