Abstract
Objective
Very preterm (VP) children are at risk for social difficulties, including autism spectrum
disorder (ASD). This study used eye tracking to determine viewing behaviors that may
reflect these difficulties.
Design
The gaze patterns of 47 VP (mean gestational age: 28 weeks, mean birth weight: 948 g, and mean chronological age: 49 months) were assessed while viewing dynamic social scenes and compared with those
of 25 typically developing (TD) and 25 children with ASD. The temporo-spatial gaze
patterns were summarized on a two-dimensional plane using multidimensional scaling
(MDS) and the median of the TD children was used to characterize the gazes of the
VP children. Time spent viewing the face was also compared.
Results
The VP children formed two clusters: one had a mean MDS distance comparable to that
of TD group (n = 32; VP-small), and the other had a larger mean distance comparable to that of ASD
group (n = 15; VP-large). The VP-large were similar to the ASD group by spending significantly
less time viewing the face. Their performance was comparable to the TD during the
initial 1 s, but they could not remain focused on the face thereafter.
Conclusions
The VP children were objectively classified into two groups based on gaze behaviors.
One group was comparable to TD children, whereas the other had difficulty maintaining
attention and exhibited atypical viewing behaviors similar to those of the ASD group.
Our method may be useful in identifying VP children at higher risk for experiencing
social difficulties.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: November 01, 2016
Accepted:
October 9,
2016
Received in revised form:
August 28,
2016
Received:
April 22,
2016
Identification
Copyright
© 2016 The Japanese Society of Child Neurology. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
