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Greater Pupil Size in Response to Emotional Faces as an Early Marker of Social‐Communicative Difficulties in Infants at High Risk for Autism
Author(s) -
Wagner Jennifer B.,
Luyster Rhian J.,
TagerFlusberg Helen,
Nelson Charles A.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
infancy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.361
H-Index - 69
eISSN - 1532-7078
pISSN - 1525-0008
DOI - 10.1111/infa.12128
Subject(s) - psychology , developmental psychology , arousal , gaze , pupil , autism , social cue , eye tracking , facial expression , pupillometry , pupillary response , eye contact , association (psychology) , audiology , social psychology , communication , neuroscience , medicine , physics , psychoanalysis , optics , psychotherapist
When scanning faces, individuals with autism spectrum disorder ( ASD ) have shown reduced visual attention (e.g., less time on eyes) and atypical autonomic responses (e.g., heightened arousal). To understand how these differences might explain subclinical variability in social functioning, 9‐month‐olds, with or without a family history of ASD , viewed emotionally expressive faces, and gaze and pupil diameter (a measure of autonomic activation) were recorded using eye‐tracking. Infants at high risk for ASD with no subsequent clinical diagnosis ( HRA ‐) and low‐risk controls ( LRC ) showed similar face scanning and attention to eyes and mouth; attention was overall greater to eyes than mouth, but this varied as a function of the emotion presented. As a group, HRA ‐ showed significantly larger pupil size than LRC . Correlations between scanning at 9 months, pupil size at 9 months, and 18‐month social‐communicative behavior, revealed positive associations between pupil size and attention to both face and eyes at 9 months in LRC, and a negative association between 9‐month pupil size and 18‐month social‐communicative behavior in HRA‐.The present findings point to heightened autonomic arousal in HRA‐. Further, with greater arousal relating to worse social‐communicative functioning at 18 months, this work points to a mechanism by which unaffected siblings might develop atypical social behavior.