New study unravels why children with autism look less at other people's eyes

A new study conducted by researchers at Marcus Autism Center, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, and Emory University School of Medicine helps put to rest a longstanding controversy and question about children with autism spectrum disorder.

Eye-tracking measures developed by the group demonstrate that young children with autism do not avoid eye contact on purpose; instead, they miss the significance of social information in others' eyes.

While reduced eye contact is a well-known symptom of autism used in early screeners and diagnostic instruments, why children with autism look less at other people's eyes has not been known. New research, reported in the American Journal of Psychiatry, helps answer that question.

"This is important because we're disentangling very different understandings of autism," said Jennifer Moriuchi, a graduate student at Emory University. "Depending on why you think children with autism are making less eye contact, you might have different approaches to treatment and different ideas about the brain basis of autism. Drug treatments and behavioral interventions are already being developed and tested on the basis of these different explanations. By clarifying which explanation is correct, we can make sure that we're addressing the correct underlying concern."

Two explanations for reduced eye contact have been proposed. One explanation holds that children with autism avoid eye contact because they find it stressful and negative. The other explanation holds that children with autism look less at other people's eyes because the social cues from the eyes are not perceived as particularly meaningful or important.

The new research, conducted on the day when children were first diagnosed, shows that young children with autism do not actively avoid eye contact, and it confirms that other people's eyes are not aversive to young children with autism. Instead, young children with autism look less at the eyes because they appear to miss the social significance of eye contact.

Together with Drs. Ami Klin and Warren Jones, Moriuchi studied how 86 two-year-old children with and without autism paid attention to other people's eyes. Children with autism watched a series of carefully made videos. "Before each video, we flashed a small picture to capture the child's attention, and when they looked to where the picture had been, they found that they were either looking directly at another person's eyes or looking away from the eyes," said Moriuchi. "When we did this repeatedly, we found that young children with autism continued to look straight at the eyes. Like their peers without autism, they didn't look away from the eyes or try to avoid the eyes in any way."

However, when varying levels of socially meaningful eye contact were presented, children with autism looked less at other people's eyes than their peers without autism. "These results go against the idea that young children with autism actively avoid eye contact," said Warren Jones. "They're looking less at the eyes not because of an aversion to making eye contact, but because they don't appear to understand the social significance of eye contact."

The researchers studied eye gaze responses in young children with autism at the time of their initial diagnosis in order to have clearer evidence about the initial underlying reasons for reduced eye contact. Some adults and older children with autism have reported feeling anxious in response to eye contact. "Our results aren't meant to contradict these personal experiences," emphasized Jones. "For children with autism, social signals can be confusing. And as children grow up to be adults, those signals can become even more challenging to understand. This research highlights the opportunity to target the right underlying concerns as early as possible."

"Studies like this one help advance our understanding of autism and improve the way scientists and clinicians develop new treatments," said Lisa Gilotty, Chief of the Research Program on Autism Spectrum Disorders at the National Institute of Mental Health, one of the agencies that funded the study.

Comments

  1. Heath Giles Heath Giles United States says:

    It's not about the eyes, it's about how all of the environmental stimulus around any given autist overwhelms the brain.  Never giving them the chance to learn social cues.

    • Shanti Roy Shanti Roy Australia says:

      Not always. Eye contact could be a good way to find focus when overloaded from the environment, if only it didn't hurt so much.

      In a calm environment my feeling from eye contact is much the same. Eyes look very harsh and the person looks serious or even angry at me. It doesn't always happen though. Some eyes can look calm. I saw that in a psychologist I had once. And in people who I know have anxiety eyes were painful to keep looking at.
      For someone who struggles to clearly articulate my speech eye contact can be very distracting and even make me lose my train of thought, or make me stutter and stammer more.
      It never enters into my mind to make eye contact at all, so I think the scientists got that part right. If I could I wouldn't ever make it. I like speaking clearly and explaining complex facts, and I definitely don't want to look at angry faces.
      I think the more severe the autism the more they don't make eye contact. Sometimes they don't even point their head in the direction of the person they're meant to be listening to.

    • Shanti Roy Shanti Roy Australia says:

      People with autism do not pick up social cues like other children. They have to 1. Be taught these things actually exist, 2) To consciously look for them (this often results in awkward looks from the people they're monitoring) and 3. Practice them. They might one day begin to come naturally but not always. Sometimes an autistic person must always be conscious that they have to use non verbal body language and read it in other people.

      Missing out on social cues because of being overwhelmed by the environment because of a different processing system is more an ADHD thing. Then again you can have someone with both autism and ADHD. Maybe the processing is similar in both conditions but you can put an autistic in a calm environment like the family home and they still wouldn't be able to pick up on social cues.

  2. Ali Hammons Ali Hammons United States says:

    Ever think about asking an Autistic person why they don't make eye contact? Instead of making ridiculous studies that don't conclude anything?

    • Erik Peterson Erik Peterson United States says:

      THAT ^^^^
      32 years old here, family long gave up on me, just pilled and therapied me up. finally got to move to Cali, on med cannabis now, no pills at all and I have Finally started to fix everything inside of me. Used to have trouble engaging in regular eye contact, still sometimes do. But it's getting better and better; Maybe you doctors could ask me and others like me about my 25+ year experiences with this?
      Don't know about others like me, but I'd do it for free

    • Kit Kederich Kit Kederich United States says:

      Hey, what a strange, novel, and totally unexpected--read: logical--question!
        Thank you.
        I am high functioning in my Autism, and it has long bugged me that we are treated a lot like bizarre insects, and not as, oh, gee, I don't know,,, intelligent people.
        I do look at eyes in most animals. I look at eyes in art (usually not my main area of focus), and I have little trouble looking at eyes in films--depending a lot upon the style of acting, directing, etc.
        But, even at age 59 I still have trouble looking straight into people's eyes in public, in real life. I can see a lot of information from said art, photo, film, but it is like an over-voltage effect, drowning out the signal, with live people.
        So, I can easily understand the study and its results,, but I question, from my life experience, the conclusions. I do miss a lot of social clues, and part of this is the matter of eyes, and part that I do not think or perceive as do they, the general public. Curiously, I got along just fine with several wolves that I raised, and it was commented by a Biologist friend that their (the wolves's) social convention of not looking straight into each other's eyes was rather like mine. We could understand each other well through other clues.
        Take this as you will.

  3. Angel Searle Angel Searle United States says:

    Sorry I don't buy it. My daughter -actively- twisted her head side to side to avoid looking into my eyes when she was five months old. I remember how shocked my mother and I were to see this tiny baby doing everything she could to get away from eye contact. It was in fact at that precise moment, like an arrow to the heart, that I realized something was wrong with her.

    • Erik Peterson Erik Peterson United States says:

      I totally understand everything you say about how your daughter reacted. I can safely say I have some bit of autism...all of my friends have told me I have "very high functioning" ASD(autism spectrum disorder).
      The best way I can try to explain this is...think of social engagement for people with autism/ASD as an Extremely uncomfortable activity in prolonged doses. Even engaging myself as much as I tried to back in high school and even before, I found I never could fully "connect" with anyone, at least not on that level that I was always capable of perceiving "normal" folks engaging in...talk about a mind killer. That in itself causes PTSD
      I can't speak for everyone, but what has helped for me personally is a combination of medical bud, active therapy, Getting Out regularly and exercising, finding and removing all bad influences/bad environments, and kicking my meds.
      I mean, make no mistake, I'll always be "different" from those who Don't have ASD, but hey, I feel So much better now inside and out.
      I hope everything is going well for you and your family too =) Especially her

    • Shanti Roy Shanti Roy Australia says:

      It is because eye contact isn't important to us. It doesn't really enter into our minds to use it. I can't really remember what it was like when I was younger but I would never make eye contact and I would refuse to do something if people were trying to make me. There isn't really another connection shared between an autistic person and another person. At least it doesn't occur naturally. It has to be worked on.
      Ask yourself why you make eye contact? I will take a guess that it makes you feel closer to a person. I know from a lot of reading that eye contact can make the area of the brain used for socialising light up, but this is non-existent in autistic people.
      By the age of 10 I only made eye contact when someone yelled at me to look them in the eye. All I saw was a very angry person and I see that look every time I look someone in the eye.

  4. Shanti Roy Shanti Roy Australia says:

    Seriously, what is with everyone disagreeing with the researchers? Studies have to find evidence to support a theory or reach results, rather than relying on assumptions, gut feelings or emotions. Anti-intellectualism is not pretty.
    I'm happy to report that this research just confirms what I've experienced from eye contact for the last 30 years. It is meaningless. What am I supposed to feel? I see lines and shape and colour and then I lose my train of thought. I only do it because I'm supposed to. Can't have the other person feeling uncomfortable even if making eye contact makes me feel really distressed. I just explained why in the other posts.

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