Social attention in the wild - Fixations to the eyes and autistic traits during a naturalistic interaction in a healthy sample

Social attention in the wild - Fixations to the eyes and autistic traits during a naturalistic interaction in a healthy sample | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Social attention in the wild - Fixations to the eyes and autistic traits during a naturalistic interaction in a healthy sample Raimund Buehler, Giorgia Silani, Ulrich Ansorge This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-4016436/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Published Journal Publication published 03 Dec, 2024 Read the published version in Scientific Reports → Version 1 posted 10 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Attention to social stimuli is a key component of social behavior and facilitates the development of fundamental social skills. Studies investigating social attention in neurotypical or neurodiverse populations have often relied on screen-based experiments using static images or videos, which lack the sensory richness and reciprocity present in real-life social interactions. This can possibly be attributed to the challenges one encounters when creating naturalistic experiments, such as dealing with dynamically moving areas of interest (AOI’s), which require either time-intensive manual coding or restraining of participants. Here, we present findings from a paradigm using unrestrained mobile eye-tracking and a face detection algorithm (MTCNN) to measure fixation rates during a semi-structured, face-to-face interview. Data from N = 62 healthy adult participants was analyzed for gaze behavior and related to participants’ autistic traits. We observed a significant negative correlation between fixation rates on the eye region averaged over the entire interaction and scores on the autism spectrum quotient (AQ) (r = -0.14), indicating participants with high autistic traits were fixating less on the eye region. We also compared different types of interview questions (open vs. closed) to explore whether the reduction in fixation rates was more pronounced for specific time intervals during the interview. Lastly, we discuss both possibilities for extensions as well as limitations of the presented paradigm that could serve as inspiration for future research. Biological sciences/Psychology Biological sciences/Psychology/Human behaviour Health sciences/Diseases/Psychiatric disorders/Autism spectrum disorders Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Supplementary Files figureS1.png figureS2.png figureS3.png supplementarymaterial.docx Cite Share Download PDF Status: Published Journal Publication published 03 Dec, 2024 Read the published version in Scientific Reports → Version 1 posted Editorial decision: Revision requested 01 Oct, 2024 Reviews received at journal 30 Sep, 2024 Reviews received at journal 21 Sep, 2024 Reviewers agreed at journal 08 Sep, 2024 Reviewers agreed at journal 05 Sep, 2024 Reviewers invited by journal 30 Apr, 2024 Editor assigned by journal 30 Apr, 2024 Editor invited by journal 23 Apr, 2024 Submission checks completed at journal 23 Apr, 2024 First submitted to journal 05 Mar, 2024 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. 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