Eye tracking technology for autism

Eye tracking technology for autism

They are the numbers that get a lot of attention when talking about autism spectrum disorders. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in 68 children in the United States is diagnosed with autism. There are several advocacy groups that do a lot of work to raise awareness of the disorder, and they often support families with autistic children and advocate for services in communities and schools.

Autism is not a specific disease, but rather a spectrum disorder that manifests itself differently in those affected. Dysfunction of a child's communication mechanism and social interaction, as well as repetitive or restrictive behaviors, are the most common problems. Children with autism spectrum disorder typically have problems concentrating, following routines, and difficulty in school, especially in terms of conversations and making friends.

A new study in the US recently examined a common problem among people with autism: eye contact. It's difficult for most children, and researchers tried to figure out what eye tracking means for people with autism spectrum disorder.

18 neurotypical children and 17 children with autism spectrum disorder between the ages of five and 11 took part in the study. During the online video call, an eye tracker system was used to track what the person saw when they looked at something on the screen, using reflected infrared light from the retina. The researchers recorded the X and Y coordinates of the eyes. At times when the conversation was fairly ordinary, like what they were doing for work or what the weather was like, most children with autism spectrum disorder were able to make proper eye contact. But it was, as expected, lower compared to adults.

When the topic of conversation was more emotionally charged, such as what they were feeling sad or scary about, children's eye contact shifted to their mouth. Greater shift to the chin or mouth and less eye contact meant a higher correlation between children with higher disorder severity and poor executive function and intellectual ability.

Experts say the topic of your conversation is really important for children with autism spectrum disorder. Just change some words by talking about what people do and how they feel. This can have a big impact on where the eyes would look for information. For the children with autism, an emotional conversation results in a higher load on working memory. In fact, it overloads the brain's information processing function.

It was the first time a study on autism used eye-tracking technology to determine the extent of the disorder in children and adults. The research team hopes their findings will encourage people and affected neighborhoods to look for ways to better understand people with autism and how they see the world.

Understanding people with autism is the first call to action to create a more inclusive world for them. Such people are usually reluctant to go out and mingle with the world. Further research is needed into what can be done to create a better and more supportive world for autistic people.

Inspired by Kevin Carter