The eye-tracking of social stimuli in patients with Rett syndrome and autism spectrum disorders: a pilot study

• Autor(a) principal: Schwartzman,José Salomão
• Data de Publicação: 2015
• Outros Autores: Velloso,Renata de Lima, D’Antino,Maria Eloísa Famá, Santos,Silvana
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Arquivos de neuro-psiquiatria (Online)
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0004-282X2015000500006
• topic: Rett syndrome; autism spectrum disorders; social cognition; eye tracking

Objective To compare visual fixation at social stimuli in Rett syndrome (RT) and autism spectrum disorders (ASD) patients. Method Visual fixation at social stimuli was analyzed in 14 RS female patients (age range 4-30 years), 11 ASD male patients (age range 4-20 years), and 17 children with typical development (TD). Patients were exposed to three different pictures (two of human faces and one with social and non-social stimuli) presented for 8 seconds each on the screen of a computer attached to an eye-tracker equipment. Results Percentage of visual fixation at social stimuli was significantly higher in the RS group compared to ASD and even to TD groups. Conclusion Visual fixation at social stimuli seems to be one more endophenotype making RS to be very different from ASD.