ISSN 1671-3710
CN 11-4766/R
主办：中国科学院心理研究所
出版：科学出版社

Advances in Psychological Science ›› 2023, Vol. 31 ›› Issue (suppl.): 98-98.

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Unconscious, but not Conscious, Gaze-triggered Social Attention Reflects the Autistic Traits in Adults and Children

Fang Yanga,b,c, Jinyu Tiand, Peijun Yuana,b,c, Chunyan Liua,b,c,e, Xinyuan Zhangf, Li Yangd, Yi Jianga,b,c   

  1. aDepartment of Psychology and College of Life Science, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China, 100101;
    bState Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Science, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China, 100101;
    cChinese Institute for Brain Research, Beijing, China, 100101;
    dInstitute of Mental Health, National Clinical Research Center for Mental Disorders, NHC Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Peking University Sixth Hospital, Peking University, Beijing, China, 100101;
    eSchool of Education and Psychology, University of Jinan, Jinan, China, 250000;
    fSchool of New Media, Financial & Economic News, Guangdong University of Finance, Guangzhou, China, 510000
  • Online:2023-08-26 Published:2023-09-08

Abstract: PURPOSE: Typically developing (TD) individuals can readily orient attention towards other’s gaze direction, known as social attention or joint attention. Here we examined whether such an ability can operate without awareness of the gaze cues and how it is associated with autistic traits and autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
METHODS: Using a combination of the gaze-cueing paradigm and the chromatic flicker fusion (CFF) technique, the present study compared the unconscious and the conscious gaze-triggered attentional effects in groups of adults and children with different autistic traits or ASD.
RESULTS: The unconscious gaze cues in the context of an upright schematic face could trigger significant social attention in both TD adults and children. This effect was pronounced after 600ms of cue presentation and vanished when the face was shown inverted. Notably, the ability to involuntarily respond to unconscious gaze cues was negatively correlated with autistic traits of TD individuals and substantially impaired in adults diagnosed with ASD and children with high autistic traits. More intriguingly, this pattern of association was not observed with the attentional effects induced by the conscious gaze cues.
CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that the unconscious gaze-triggered attentional orienting, presumably reflecting the intrinsic social attention ability, is closely linked to individual autistic traits and even ASD. Moreover, they also highlight the functional distinction between consciousness and attention from the perspective of social cognition.

Key words: gaze-cueing effect, autism spectrum disorder, social attention, consciousness, critical flicker fusion