01-03-2014 | Original Paper | Uitgave 3/2014
Bottom-Up Attention Orienting in Young Children with Autism
- Tijdschrift:
-
Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders
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Uitgave 3/2014
- Auteurs:
- Dima Amso, Sara Haas, Elena Tenenbaum, Julie Markant, Stephen J. Sheinkopf
Abstract
We examined the impact of simultaneous bottom-up visual influences and meaningful social stimuli on attention orienting in young children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). Relative to typically-developing age and sex matched participants, children with ASDs were more influenced by bottom-up visual scene information regardless of whether social stimuli and bottom-up scene properties were congruent or competing. This initial reliance on bottom-up strategies correlated with severity of social impairment as well as receptive language impairments. These data provide support for the idea that there is enhanced reliance on bottom-up attention strategies in ASDs, and that this may have a negative impact on social and language development.