As they grow, children increasingly focus their attention on social elements in their environment, such as faces or social interactions. However, children with autism are often more interested in non-social stimuli, such as textures or geometric shapes. By tracking where children look while viewing a cartoon, a team from the University of Geneva (UNIGE) has revealed that attention in autistic children does not follow the same developmental trajectory as that of typically developing children. Instead, they each gradually develop their own unique attentional preferences. These results, published in eLife, argue in favour of early interventions that enhance social attention, which could help guide autistic children onto developmental courses more akin to their peers, paving the way for tailored, individualized support.

Right from birth, babies are endowed with innate abilities that are crucial for their survival and adaptation. Among these innate abilities is a complex attentional system, finely tuned to detect the presence of others. Thus, from the beginning of their lives, newborns show a fascination for faces and face-like configurations, especially moving ones. Such preference for biological movement early in life is vital for development, serving as the primary driver of exploration and interaction with the environment, eventually setting the stage for more complex social interactions.

This fundamental, widely shared social attention can, however, be impaired in autistic children. This highly diverse neurodevelopmental condition is characterized by repetitive behaviours and specific interests accompanied by significant challenges in communication and social interactions.

Eye-tracking

Are these social challenges expressed in the same way in all autistic children? Do they vary according to the intensity of the disorder and/or age? Using an eye-tracking device that records eye movements in real-time, a UNIGE team analysed the visual preferences of 166 autistic children and 51 typically developing children (TD) while they freely viewed a short cartoon. The participants, all boys for sample homogeneity, ranged from two to seven years old and were repeatedly tested as they developed.

‘‘Each child watched a three-minute cartoon featuring a little donkey in various social situations without specific instructions. This was not a cartoon specially designed for our study, but rather one very popular among children in this age group,’’ explains Nada Kojovic, a postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Psychiatry at the UNIGE Faculty of Medicine and first author of the study.

Desynchronised attention in autism

Typically developing children are observed to focus on social interactions between characters and, as they grow older, to increasingly look at the same social elements in a scene. This phenomenon of ‘‘synchronisation’’ observed in typically developing children is absent in autistic children. The latter shows an interest in other types of stimuli – such as objects or certain irregularities in the cartoon scenery – and over time, each autistic child develops his or her own unique visual preferences.

‘‘It is likely that we could identify sub-groups with common preferences among autistic children, but there is no real synchronisation of attention over the course of their development, unlike what is observed in TD children. This is the first time that a study has highlighted this developmental phenomenon,’’ states Daphné Bavelier, a full professor in the Psychology Section of the UNIGE’s Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, and a co-author of the study.

The researchers also observed that the autistic children whose gaze was most alike that of typically developing ones function better in everyday life and have better cognitive skills. Crucially, the way in which a child views a social scene, such as the cartoon used here, can be used to predict future social difficulties.

In favour of early intervention

‘‘These findings show how important it is for therapeutic interventions to target social attention at a very early stage in autistic children, especially those with the greatest developmental delay. Indeed, this work shows that if autistic children do not show interest in social interactions early on, they will become increasingly disinterested in them,’’ explains Marie Schaer, associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the UNIGE Faculty of Medicine, who led this research.

The UNIGE  research team plans to apply its eye-tracking method to evaluate children who have benefited from a behavioural intervention known as the Early Start Denver Model (ESDM). This intensive behavioural intervention, developed in the United States, enhances communication skills in young autistic children through playful interactions. Since 2012, over a hundred autistic children under the age of three have benefited from this method in Geneva, showing encouraging outcomes. The researchers hope that their innovative eye-tracking technique will shed light on how this behavioural intervention contributes to the progress of autistic children, providing a unique tool to improve strategies for supporting their development.

Australian researchers have flagged potential concerns over the use of social chatbots, calling for more studies into the impact of the AI software on neurodiverse people and those who find human interaction difficult.

While the AI chatbot is appealing to many people who struggle with face-to-face conversations, the technology may foster bad habits that could lead to further social isolation.

That’s the view of University of South Australia and Flinders University researchers in a recent essay published in the Journal of Behavioural Addictions.

The researchers say that chatbots, now integrated into social networking platforms like Snapchat, could perpetuate communication difficulties for people with autism, anxiety and limited social skills.

Lead researcher, UniSA Psychology Honours student Andrew Franze, says the rapid development of social chatbots has pros and cons which need investigating.

“Young people with social deficiencies tend to gravitate towards companionship with online social chatbots in particular,” Franze says.

“They offer a safe means of rehearsing social interaction with limited or no risk of negative judgement based on appearance or communication style. However, there is a risk they can become dependent on chatbots and withdraw even further from human interactions.”

Franze says the inability of chatbots to have a real “conversation,” or display empathy and soft emotional skills, can reinforce dysfunctional habits in many neurodiverse people.

“Some chatbots have a generally servile quality and so there is no resistance or opposing view that characterises human conversations. This means that users can control the conversation completely; they can pause it, delay it, or even terminate the conversation. All of this is counterproductive to developing appropriate social skills in the real world.”

And while social chatbots may relieve social anxiety, this relief may develop into a form of dependency that negatively impacts on actual relationships.

The researchers say that industry-linked research has promoted the benefits of commercial chatbot applications, but feedback from parents, family members, teachers and therapists is needed to gain a broader understanding of its impacts.

“We need to gather evidence about the myriad of ways that these technologies can influence vulnerable users who may be particularly drawn to them,” Franze says. “Only then can we develop policies and industry practices that guide the responsible and safe use of chatbots.”

Below is a copy of a press release. Please note we do not approve of the language, but the information is important!

People with cognitive disabilities and autism, attention deficit and memory loss – are less satisfied with their health care than those in the general population, according to a study published by a Rutgers researcher.

The study, published in Disability and Health Journal, examined how a national sample of adults experience the care they receive and the factors contributing to their experiences.

“People with cognitive disabilities were less likely than people without cognitive disabilities to report that providers listened carefully to them, explained things or gave advice in a way that was easy to understand, spent enough time with them, or showed respect for what they had to say,” said Elizabeth Stone, a faculty member of the Rutgers Center for Health Services Research at the Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research and the lead author of the study.

Past research has shown that people with cognitive disabilities such as autism spectrum disorder and Down syndrome face barriers to accessing quality health care. Until now, research has focused on the types of care people receive or the perspectives of providers rather than the experiences of the patients with cognitive disabilities themselves.

Using a national sample of more than 22,000 adults, including those with and without cognitive disabilities, researchers analyzed patient-reported experiences with healthcare services and compared the levels of satisfaction of experiences between those with and without disabilities.

Researchers found that individuals with cognitive disabilities rated their overall satisfaction with healthcare services as significantly lower than those in the general population. Those with cognitive disabilities also reported worse experiences in healthcare encounters.

Poor patient-provider communication can contribute to adverse outcomes for patients, pointing to the need for providers to improve their capacity to communicate with patients with disabilities.

“Addressing this problem might include incorporating disability competencies into medical education and should also include policies – for example, enhanced reimbursement – that reflect the increased time and effort that might be needed to ensure that the needs of disabled patients are being met,” said Stone, who is an instructor of psychiatry at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.

In addition to the need for structural and policy changes, patients in general also can play a role. The researchers said patients should be proactive in preparing for health care appointments and asking for accommodations that may enhance their experiences.

Future research in this area should examine how experiences with health care differs across the range of cognitive disabilities and by other disabilities and identities, according to the researchers.

Noah Glaser CREDIT University of Missouri

Many people associate virtual reality headsets with interactive video games, but a researcher at the University of Missouri is using them for something far more important — helping autistic people navigate public transportation on college campuses.

MU researcher Noah Glaser — in collaboration with Matthew Schmidt, an associate professor at the University of Georgia, and others — partnered with a program at the University of Cincinnati on a pair of studies geared toward providing autistic people virtual training opportunities to practice using a public bus to get around town.

Using artificial intelligence (AI), the research team found that autistic people often experience their environment differently than their neurotypical peers, and that their attention and gaze patterns are often diverted due to sensory processing challenges in overstimulating environments. These findings pave the way for future research exploring how virtual reality simulations can help autistic individuals increase their self-confidence and community engagement by providing a safe space to practice various tasks.

“There is an abundance of autism-related research in the medical industry, but we want to show how interventions beyond medicine can help autistic people feel more comfortable in society,” said Glaser, an assistant professor in the MU College of Education and Human Development.

Practice makes perfect

One study examined how a group of young autistic adults navigated an on-campus bus system.

To gather data, Glaser and team created a virtual reality simulation that’s an exact replica of a university’s campus and shuttle system. They used an AI technique known as “computer vision” — or the ability for computers to detect objects and make informed decisions — to analyze how participants wearing the virtual reality headset attended to physical objects along their virtual journey across campus to the bus stop. They then compared that data to neurotypical users to see what differences might exist.

“We know that neurodiverse individuals often have sensory processing challenges, and certain environments — like going to a bus stop on a busy college campus — can be overstimulating and anxiety-inducing,” Glaser said. “If we can identify which objects were most distracting to neurodiverse learners along their journey and what objects were being attended to the most, we can manipulate or reduce that extra stimuli in a safe, controlled environment before participants attempt that activity in the real world.”

Part of the virtual simulation involved an instructor modelling the skills the participants would eventually perform in real life on a guided tour to the virtual bus stop.

“This project helps us better understand the nature of human-computer interaction from a group of users who typically are left out of those conversations,” Glaser said. “We need more research with neurodiverse individuals to better understand how they interact with virtual reality learning environments so we can adapt the interventions to become more accessible.”

Applications going forward

Glaser said this research is just the tip of the iceberg into examining how AI and virtual reality simulators can help special education professionals, intervention specialists and instructional designers support neurodiverse individuals.

“Going forward, we can use these tools to help provide training opportunities for neurodiverse learners who are interested in cybersecurity and science, technology, engineering and math (STEM)-related fields,” Glaser said. “These are industries that have historically been severely underrepresented in people with disabilities and neurodiverse individuals.”

Glaser said he hopes his efforts can help translate the skills neurodiverse learners adapt virtually into the real world, which will improve both their own self-confidence and their contributions to society at-large.

 “This work can spark more opportunities for promoting inclusive learning environments and better understanding of how neurodiverse individuals use and interact with technology,” Glaser said. “When learning interventions are being developed, it is important we include neurodiverse individuals as part of the design process.”

“Through the lens of artificial intelligence: A novel study of spherical video-based virtual reality usage in autism and neurotypical participants,” and “Programming for generalization: Confronting known challenges in the design of virtual reality interventions for autistic users” were published in Computers & Education: X Reality.