Unraveling the developmental dynamic of visual exploration of social interactions in autism
- Psychiatry Department, Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, Switzerland
- Faculte de Psychologie et Science de l’Education, University of Geneva, Switzerland
- Instituto de Investigaciones en Matemáticas Aplicadas y en Sistemas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad Universitaria, Mexico
- Fondation Pôle Autisme, Switzerland
- College of Medicine, Mohammed Bin Rashid University of Medicine and Health Sciences, United Arab Emirates
- Bosch Sensortec GmbH, Germany
Figures
Figure 1
Proximity Index method illustration.
Referent gaze data distribution (‘reference’) was created using gaze coordinates from 51 typically developing (TD) males (aged 3.48±1.29 years old). Upper row: two example frames with gaze …
Figure 2
Mean proximity index (PI) comparison between groups.
Violin plots illustrate the distribution of Proximity Index (PI) values for two groups: typically developing (TD) in blue (n = 51) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in red (n = 166). The error bars …
Figure 3
Proximity Index and its relation to behavioral phenotype in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
Loadings on the latent component were derived using partial least squares correlation analysis in the sample of 166 children with ASD. The cross-correlation matrix consisted of the Proximity Index …
Figure 4
Focal and ambient fixation modes, between-group comparison, and their relation to the Proximity Index (PI) across ASD and TD groups.
(A1) Relative proportion of focal and ambient fixations in a sample of 51 TD children and 166 ASD children. Box-and-whisker plots illustrate the distribution of fixation proportions. The …
Figure 5
Visual salience group differences.
(A) Illustration of the graph-based visual saliency (GBVS) salience model (Full model combining five channels: I-Intensity, O-Orientation, C-Color, F-Flicker, M-Motion). From top to bottom: Saliency …
Figure 6
Proximity Index and its relation to movie content.
(A) From top to down: In red, the average proximity index (PI) from 166 children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) over time frames. Red-shaded regions denote a 95% confidence interval of the …
Figure 7
Proximity Index and its relation to behavioral phenotype in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) seen two times a year apart.
Sample comprised 81 children with ASD who had valid eye-tracking recording and a complete set of behavioral phenotype measures a year after the baseline (T2). The PI for this paired longitudinal …
Figure 8
Characterization of the evolution of visual exploration patterns in young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and the typically developing (TD) group using a sliding window approach.
Panel A: The sliding window approach applied to the available recordings in our ASD group (red) and our TD group (blue); Panel B: gaze dispersion in two groups for the sliding windows n°7 and n°42 …
Appendix 1—figure 1
Stability of the normative distribution regarding the normative sample size.
The continuous function was estimated using a kneed Python package using the average variance (over 5150 frames) of average (over 500 bootstrapped samples without replacement) mean pairwise distance …
Appendix 2—figure 1
Visual salience group differences across channels.
(A) From left to right: full saliency model with all five channels combined and channels taken separately: I-intensity, O-orientation, D-color, F-flicker, and M-motion channel. From top to bottom: …
Appendix 3—figure 1
Illustration of the measures of social intensity and visual complexity.
(A) Three frames (denoted as a, b, c) illustrate three levels of social intensity; (B) Visual complexity depicted using the edges of the images detected using the Canny method (Canny, 1986) for the …
Appendix 4—figure 1
Proximity Index and its relation to behavioral phenotype in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who were seen two times a year apart (the current figure depicts the initial (T1) visit).
Sample comprised 81 children with ASD who had valid eye-tracking recording and a complete set of behavioral phenotype measures a year after the baseline (T2). The PI for this paired longitudinal …
Appendix 5—figure 1
Evolution of visual exploration patterns in young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and the typically developing (TD) group using a sliding window and bootstrapping approach.
The dispersion in 100 bootstrapped samples of ASD recordings is given in red and the original group dispersion in the TD group is shown in blue. Panel A: ASD bootstrapped samples are matched to the …
Author response image 1
Age distribution in our cross-sectional sample including 51 TD children and 166 children with ASD.
Tables
Table 1
Description of the cross-sectional sample.
| Measures | ASD (n=166) | TD (n=51) | p-value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mean±SD | Mean±SD | ||
| Age | 3.37±1.16 | 3.48±1.29 | 0.621a |
| Total Symptom Severity Score (ADOS-2 CSS) | 7.19±1.78 | 1.10±0.300 | <0.001a |
| Social Affect (ADOS-2 SA-CSS) | 6.08±2.06 | 1.18±0.478 | <0.001a |
| Repetitive Behaviors & | |||
| Restricted Interests (ADOS-2 RRB CSS) | 8.63±1.85 | 2.16±1.92 | <0.001a |
| Social Interaction (ADI-R: A) | 14.8±5.70 | 1.04±1.39 | <0.001a |
| Communication (ADI-R: B) | 9.97±3.44 | 1.12±1.35 | <0.001a |
| Repetitive Behaviors & | |||
| Restricted Interests (ADI-R: C) | 4.79±2.22 | 0.314±0.678 | <0.001a |
| Age of onset (ADI-R: D) | 3.60±0.997 | 0.078±0.337 | <0.001a |
| Best Estimate IQ | 83.6±24.0 | 119±16.5 | <0.001a |
| VABS-II Adaptive Behavior | 80.2±10.2 | 103±8.21 | <0.001 |
| VABS-II Communication | 80.2±13.7 | 105±8.94 | <0.001 |
| VABS-II Daily Living Skills | 83.7±11.6 | 101±8.25 | <0.001 |
| VABS-II Socialization | 79.2±9.82 | 101±8.49 | <0.001 |
| VABS-II Motor Skills | 88.4±11.5 | 102±11.2 | <0.001a |
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Note. p-valuesa are obtained using nonparametric Mann-Whitney tests of differences between the two groups.
Author response table 1
Comparison of mean age across 59 age-matched sliding windows for the TD and the ASD group.
pvalues are obtained using t-test of differences between the ASD and TD group across 59 windows.
| TD | ASD | TD | ASD | TD | ASD | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mean | SD | Mean | SD p value | Mean | Mean | SD | Mean | SD p value | Mean | Mean | SD | Mean | SD p value | Mean | |||
| SW 1 | 1.88 | 0.242 | 1.94 | 0.118 | 0.813 | SW 21 | 2.78 | 0.226 | 2.86 | 0.065 | 0.975 | SW 41 | 3.53 | 0.239 | 3.61 | 0.082 | 0.931 |
| SW 2 | 1.93 | 0.224 | 1.97 | 0.111 | 0.931 | SW 22 | 2.82 | 0.215 | 2.90 | 0.060 | 0.911 | SW 42 | 3.57 | 0.236 | 3.64 | 0.088 | 0.919 |
| SW 3 | 1.96 | 0.238 | 2.01 | 0.108 | 0.872 | SW 23 | 2.86 | 0.202 | 2.93 | 0.055 | 0.973 | SW 43 | 3.61 | 0.233 | 3.68 | 0.092 | 0.998 |
| SW 4 | 2.00 | 0.251 | 2.05 | 0.111 | 0.880 | SW 24 | 2.90 | 0.193 | 2.96 | 0.059 | 1.000 | SW 44 | 3.65 | 0.230 | 3.73 | 0.091 | 0.951 |
| SW 5 | 2.04 | 0.268 | 2.09 | 0.113 | 0.986 | SW 25 | 2.93 | 0.187 | 3.00 | 0.062 | 0.916 | SW 45 | 3.68 | 0.220 | 3.75 | 0.085 | 0.952 |
| SW 6 | 2.09 | 0.286 | 2.14 | 0.114 | 0.912 | SW 26 | 2.96 | 0.189 | 3.04 | 0.062 | 0.980 | SW 46 | 3.72 | 0.212 | 3.80 | 0.072 | 0.981 |
| SW 7 | 2.14 | 0.300 | 2.18 | 0.112 | 0.936 | SW 27 | 3.00 | 0.197 | 3.07 | 0.060 | 0.935 | SW 47 | 3.76 | 0.211 | 3.83 | 0.061 | 0.996 |
| SW 8 | 2.18 | 0.307 | 2.22 | 0.100 | 0.933 | SW 28 | 3.04 | 0.201 | 3.11 | 0.057 | 0.958 | SW 48 | 3.79 | 0.209 | 3.86 | 0.054 | 0.950 |
| SW 9 | 2.23 | 0.309 | 2.28 | 0.089 | 0.951 | SW 29 | 3.07 | 0.201 | 3.14 | 0.057 | 0.926 | SW 49 | 3.83 | 0.203 | 3.90 | 0.054 | 0.972 |
| SW 10 | 2.28 | 0.308 | 2.33 | 0.066 | 0.965 | SW 30 | 3.11 | 0.204 | 3.18 | 0.063 | 0.952 | SW 50 | 3.87 | 0.199 | 3.94 | 0.062 | 0.920 |
| SW 11 | 2.33 | 0.308 | 2.43 | 0.080 | 0.948 | SW 31 | 3.14 | 0.209 | 3.21 | 0.062 | 0.957 | SW 51 | 3.90 | 0.197 | 3.97 | 0.061 | 0.961 |
| SW 12 | 2.38 | 0.301 | 2.48 | 0.073 | 0.928 | SW 32 | 3.18 | 0.210 | 3.25 | 0.059 | 0.971 | SW 52 | 3.94 | 0.190 | 4.01 | 0.055 | 0.977 |
| SW 13 | 2.43 | 0.296 | 2.52 | 0.070 | 0.947 | SW 33 | 3.21 | 0.213 | 3.29 | 0.054 | 0.982 | SW 53 | 3.97 | 0.184 | 4.04 | 0.049 | 0.939 |
| SW 14 | 2.48 | 0.285 | 2.57 | 0.065 | 0.992 | SW 34 | 3.25 | 0.217 | 3.33 | 0.054 | 0.962 | SW 54 | 4.01 | 0.179 | 4.07 | 0.047 | 0.998 |
| SW 15 | 2.53 | 0.278 | 2.62 | 0.067 | 0.963 | SW 35 | 3.29 | 0.230 | 3.37 | 0.068 | 0.959 | SW 55 | 4.04 | 0.188 | 4.10 | 0.054 | 0.933 |
| SW 16 | 2.57 | 0.271 | 2.66 | 0.071 | 0.936 | SW 36 | 3.33 | 0.240 | 3.42 | 0.070 | 0.977 | SW 56 | 4.07 | 0.199 | 4.14 | 0.068 | 0.998 |
| SW 17 | 2.61 | 0.260 | 2.70 | 0.072 | 0.998 | SW 37 | 3.38 | 0.243 | 3.45 | 0.067 | 0.929 | SW 57 | 4.11 | 0.205 | 4.18 | 0.069 | 0.976 |
| SW 18 | 2.66 | 0.242 | 2.74 | 0.077 | 0.985 | SW 38 | 3.42 | 0.242 | 3.49 | 0.062 | 0.966 | SW 58 | 4.14 | 0.213 | 4.23 | 0.063 | 0,941 |
| SW 19 | 2.70 | 0.238 | 2.78 | 0.076 | 0.950 | SW 39 | 3.45 | 0.244 | 3.53 | 0.057 | 0.992 | SW 59 | 4.19 | 0.229 | 4.28 | 0.050 | 0.978 |
| SW 20 | 2.74 | 0.233 | 2.83 | 0.069 | 0.937 | SW 40 | 3.49 | 0.242 | 3.56 | 0.066 |
