Typically developing(TD)individuals can readily orient attention according to others'eye-gaze direction,an ability known as social attention,which involves both innate and acquired components.To distinguish betwee...Typically developing(TD)individuals can readily orient attention according to others'eye-gaze direction,an ability known as social attention,which involves both innate and acquired components.To distinguish between these two components,we used a critical flicker fusion technique to render gaze cues invisible to participants,thereby largely reducing influences from consciously acquired strategies.Results revealed that both visible and invisible gaze cues could trigger attentional orienting in TD adults(aged 20 to 30 years)and children(aged 6 to 12 years).Intriguingly,only the ability to involuntarily respond to invisible gaze cues was negatively correlated with autistic traits among all TD participants.This ability was substantially impaired in adults with autism spectrum disorder(ASD)and in children with high autistic traits.No such association or reduction was observed with visible gaze cues.These findings provide compelling evidence for the functional demarcation of conscious and unconscious gaze-triggered attentional orienting that emerges early in life and develops into adulthood,shedding new light on the differentiation of the innate and acquired aspects of social attention.Moreover,they contribute to a comprehensive understanding of social endophenotypes of ASD.展开更多
基金supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China(2021ZD0203800 and 2021ZD0204200)the National Natural Science Foundation of China(31830037)+2 种基金the Key Research and Development Program of Guangdong(2023B0303010004)the Interdisciplinary Innovation Team of the Chinese Academy of Sciences(JCTD-2021-06)Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities.
文摘Typically developing(TD)individuals can readily orient attention according to others'eye-gaze direction,an ability known as social attention,which involves both innate and acquired components.To distinguish between these two components,we used a critical flicker fusion technique to render gaze cues invisible to participants,thereby largely reducing influences from consciously acquired strategies.Results revealed that both visible and invisible gaze cues could trigger attentional orienting in TD adults(aged 20 to 30 years)and children(aged 6 to 12 years).Intriguingly,only the ability to involuntarily respond to invisible gaze cues was negatively correlated with autistic traits among all TD participants.This ability was substantially impaired in adults with autism spectrum disorder(ASD)and in children with high autistic traits.No such association or reduction was observed with visible gaze cues.These findings provide compelling evidence for the functional demarcation of conscious and unconscious gaze-triggered attentional orienting that emerges early in life and develops into adulthood,shedding new light on the differentiation of the innate and acquired aspects of social attention.Moreover,they contribute to a comprehensive understanding of social endophenotypes of ASD.
