Investigation of Coordinated Visual Attention Using Head-Mounted Eye Tracking in Infants With an Elevated Risk for Autism Spectrum Disorder

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a prevalent condition characterized by persistent deficits in social communication and restricted, repetitive behaviors. Coordinated visual attention (CVA), the ability to share attention with others through gaze coordination, is a key component of early social development, and differences in CVA may serve as a potential early marker of ASD. Given the increased likelihood of ASD among siblings of diagnosed individuals, research has focused on studying CVA differences to improve early detection and intervention strategies. The thesis aims to examine group differences between elevated likelihood (EL) and low likelihood (LL) infant-parent dyads in toy-directed attention and CVA interactions during naturalistic play, using HMET to explore early differences in social attention which may be relevant to ASD risk. Data was collected during play sessions within home visits following a standardized protocol with pre-selected toys and included offline calibration and coding gaze behavior using Datavyu software. The study analyzed CVA in 8-month N=38 infant-parent dyads (EL=23, LL=15) using frame-by-frame coding of gaze behavior from synchronized videos, with instances of shared attention exceeding 100 milliseconds classified as CVA. The results concluded there was no significant difference between EL and LL groups in the proportion of time spent looking at the toy, but EL infants exhibited longer toy-looking durations than LL infants. While overall CVA measures did not significantly differ, EL dyads had longer CVA bout durations, and there appeared to be differences in the pathways to these CVA bouts. EL infants more frequently led CVA bouts, whereas LL infants followed a parent-led pathway. The findings suggest that while EL and LL infants do not differ in overall CVA measures, infant-led and parent-led pathways may reflect early differences in social development, potentially informing early ASD screening and early intervention efforts.