Eye tracking demonstrates the influence of autistic traits on social attention in a community sample from India.
Level 4 - case-series / case-control
Cross-sectional observational study assessing correlations between self-reported traits and eye-tracking measures in a single cohort.
PubMed 41152530 · doi:10.1038/s41598-025-23676-7
What was done
Researchers evaluated 121 young adults from Kerala, India, measuring autistic traits via the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ) and ADHD traits using the Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS). Participants completed an eye-tracking preferential-looking task where pairs of social and non-social images were presented simultaneously to measure visual attention preferences.
What was found
The abstract reports no numerical values, effect sizes, or test statistics. Directionally, higher autistic traits were associated with reduced gaze preference for social stimuli. ADHD traits showed no association with social attention. Subscale analysis indicated this relationship was driven by the social factor of the AQ rather than the attention-to-detail factor.
Why it matters
Most social attention research in autism has been conducted in Western Europe and the United States. These findings suggest that the negative association between autistic traits and social attention generalizes to an Indian population, supporting the potential for culture-agnostic phenotypic assessments.
Limits
No quantitative data, effect sizes, confidence intervals, or p-values are reported in the abstract. The study relies on self-reported trait questionnaires in a non-clinical community sample of young adults from a single geographic region, rather than individuals with clinical autism diagnoses. Gaze was tested using static laboratory images, which may not fully reflect real-world social attention.