Attention in Girls with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD): An Eye-Tracking Approach to Gender-Specific Circumscribed Interests

ASD is a male-dominant condition however research indicates that girls may have different phenotypic-profiles particularly in the domain of Circumscribed Interests (CI) – intense and often idiosyncratic interest held by children and adults with ASD. CI are reported in 80% of individuals with ASD, and while can represent islands of ability, limit learning and social opportunities. Eye tracking offers one way to examine the attentional mechanisms underlying CI with studies finding reduced social attention. No study has explored gender differences. As such we do not know if CI manifest differently in girls. The identification of differential attention and learning styles could inform ASD diagnosis and intervention, which are largely defined by the male-phenotype. This study uses eye tracking as a way to examine potential gender differences in attention in ASD. We are currently examining differences between girls and boys attention to two sets of visual arrays (1)High Autism Interest (HAI) items vs. Neutral items and (2)Female vs. Male Interests (based on typically developing literature). This will allow us to examine whether girls with ASD (1)have similar attentional patterns to CI (HAI images) as boys with ASD, (2)have similar attentional patterns but to different stimuli or (3)are characterized by different attentional patterns.