Eye Tracking of Social Visual Engagement Predicts Autism Diagnosis

THURSDAY, Sept. 7, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- Eye tracking-based measurement of social visual engagement is predictive of autism diagnoses by clinical experts in 16- to 30-month-old children, according to a study published online Sept. 5 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Warren Jones, Ph.D., from Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, and colleagues evaluated the performance of eye-tracking measurement of social visual engagement (index test) compared to expert clinical diagnosis in young children referred to specialty autism clinics. The analysis included 475 children (16 to 30 months old) seen at six U.S. specialty centers from April 2018 through May 2019.

The researchers found that across all children, measurement of social visual engagement had a sensitivity of 71.0 percent and specificity of 80.7 percent. In the subgroup of 335 children with an expert clinical autism diagnosis, sensitivity was 78.0 percent and specificity was 85.4 percent. There was a correlation between eye-tracking test results and expert clinical assessments at the individual level for social disability (r = −0.75), verbal ability (r = 0.65), and nonverbal cognitive ability (r = 0.65).

“Eye-tracking–based measurement warrants further evaluation for early diagnosis and assessment of autism in young children referred to specialty clinics,” the authors write.

The study was supported by the Marcus Foundation and the Joseph B. Whitehead Foundation, and several authors disclosed ties to these foundations, as well as EarliTec Diagnostics, which helped with eye-tracking data processing and analysis.

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