Focus of Attention in Children with ASD

961

Abstract

The special way of understanding the world and the brain mechanisms of cognitive impairment in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are becoming the core topics in the autism research. The article presents a study of the general characteristics of attention in children of primary school age with ASD using instruments aimed at detecting impairments of attention parameters: Schulte Tables, Go/No Go Task, Kraepelin’s Arithmetic Test, Stroop Test used to study the focus of attention in the context of the interference of verbal and object stimuli. Results of study of attention in children with ASD seemed to be ambivalent. Children with ASD are successful in performing the Schulte Tables; on the contrary, the Go/No Go Task shows the difficulties of performing the tasks and inhibition of dominant response. Different degrees of unstable focus of attention in tasks on visual perception also shown. The features of focusing attention in conditions of interference require further research. Preliminary results showed that the focus of attention in younger schoolchildren with ASD is associated with a preference for verbal rather than object characteristics of visual stimuli.

General Information

Keywords: attention, autism spectrum disorders, inhibition, Stroop Test, interference

Journal rubric: Research & Diagnosis of ASD

Article type: scientific article

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17759/autdd.2020180404

For citation: Karimulina E.G., Khlyustova N.G. Focus of Attention in Children with ASD. Autizm i narusheniya razvitiya = Autism and Developmental Disorders, 2020. Vol. 18, no. 4, pp. 33–42. DOI: 10.17759/autdd.2020180404. (In Russ., аbstr. in Engl.)

References

  1. Voronin N.A. Sovremennye predstavleniya o sistemakh vnimaniya [Modern concepts of attention systems]. Sovremennaya zarubezhnaya psikhologiya [Journal of Modern Foreign Psychology], 2016, vol. 5, no. 4, pp. 67—76. DOI:10.17759/jmfp.2016050407
  2. Kritskaya V.P., Meleshko T.K., Polyakov U.F. Patologiya psihicheskoi deyatelnosti pri shizofrenii; motivatsiya, obshenie, posnsniye [Pathology of psycic activity in shizofrenia: motivation, communication, cognition]. Moscow. Meditsina, 1991. 256 p.
  3. Manelis N.G. Sravnitel’nyi neiropsikhologicheskii analiz formirovaniya vysshikh psikhicheskikh funktsii u zdorovykh detei i u detei s autisticheskimi rasstroistvami [Comparative neuropsychological analysis of the formation of higher psychological functions in healthy children and children with autistic disorders]: PhD dissertation / Moscow State University. Moscow, 2000. 124 p.
  4. Stroganova T.A., Orekhova E.V., Galyuta I.A. Neironnye mekhanizmy narushenii orientirovki vnimaniya u detei s rasstroistvom autisticheskogo spektra [Neural basis of attention orienting abnormalities in children with autism]. Eksperimental’naya psikhologiya [Experimental Psychology (Russia)], 2015, vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 7—23. DOI:10.17759/exppsy.2015080302
  5. Adams N.C., Jarrold C. Inhibition and the validity of the Stroop task for children with autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 2009, vol. 39, no. 8, pp.1112—1121. DOI:10.1007/s10803-009-0721-8
  6. Adamson L.B., Bakeman R., Suma K., Robins D.L. An expanded view of joint attention: skill, engagement, and language in typical development and autism. Child Developement, 2017, vol. 90, no. 1, pp. e1—e18. DOI:10.1111/cdev.12973
  7. Amso D., Haas S., Tenenbaum E., Markant J., Sheinkopf S.J. Bottom-up attention orienting in young children with autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 2014, vol. 44, pp. 664—673. DOI:10.1007/s10803-013-1925-5
  8. Baron-Cohen S. et al. Talent in autism: Hyper-systemizing, hyper-attention to detail and sensory hypersensitivity Philosophical Transactions of The Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 2009, vol. 364, no. 1522, pp. 1377—1383. DOI:10.1098/rstb.2008.0337
  9. Billeci L., Narzisi A., Campatelli G., Crifaci G., Calderoni S., Gagliano A. et al. Disentangling the initiation from the response in joint attention: an eye-tracking study in toddlers for autism spectrum disorders. Translational Psychiatry, 2016, vol. 6, p.  e808. DOI:10.1038/tp.2016.75
  10. Chawarska K., Macari S., Shic F. Context modulates attention to social scenes in toddlers with autism. The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 2012, vol. 53, no. 8, pp. 903—913. DOI:10.1111/j.1469-7610.2012.02538.x
  11. Chawarska K., Macari S., Shic F. Decreased spontaneous attention to social scenes in 6-month-old infants later diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders. Biological Psychiatry, 2013, vol. 74, no. 3, pp. 195—203. DOI:10.1016/j. biopsych.2012.11.0221
  12. Cheung C.H.M., Bedford R., Johnson M.H., Charman T., Gliga T. Visual search performance in infants associates with later ASD diagnosis. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 2018, vol. 29, pp. 4—10. DOI:10.1016/j.dcn.2016.09.003
  13. Frith U., Happé F. Autism: beyond “theory of mind”. Cognition, 1994, vol. 50, no. 1—3, pp. 115—132. DOI:10.1016/0010- 0277(94)90024-8
  14. Gladfelter A., Barron K. How children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder, Developmental Language Disorder and Typical learn to produce global and local semantic features // Brain Science, 2020, 10(4), p. 231—251.
  15. Happé F., Frith U. The weak coherence account: detail-focused cognitive style in autism spectrum disorders. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 2006, vol. 36, no. 1, pp. 5—25. DOI:10.1007/s10803-005-0039-0
  16. Jones W., Klin A. Attention to eyes is present but in decline in 2—6 — months-old infants later diagnosed with autism.//   Nature, 2013 Dec 19; 504(7480), pp. 427—31.
  17. Mann T., Walker P. Autism and a deficit in broadening the spread of visual attention. The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 2003, vol. 44, no. 2, pp. 274—284. DOI:10.1111/1469-7610.00120
  18. Nyström P., Bölte S., Falck-Ytter T. et al. Responding to other people’s direct gaze: alterations in gaze behavior in infants at risk for autism occur on very short timescales. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 2017, vol. 47, pp. 3498— 3509.  DOI:10.1007/s10803-017-3253-7
  19. Nyström P., Gliga T., Jobs E.N., Gredebäck G., Charman T., Johnson M.H. et al. (2018). Enhanced pupillary  light  reflex  in infancy is associated with autism diagnosis in toddlerhood. Nature Communications, 2018, vol. 9, article no. 1678. DOI:10.1038/s41467-018-03985-4
  20. Reed P., Altweck L., Broomfield L. et al. Effect of Observing-Response Procedures on Overselectivity in Individuals With Autism Spectrum Disorders. The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 2012, vol. 27, no. 4, pp. 237—246. DOI:10.1177/1088357612457986
  21. Ridderinkhof A., de Bruin E.I., van den Driesschen S. Attention  in  Children  With  Autism  Spectrum  Disorder  and    the Effects of a Mindfulness-Based Program. Journal of Attention Disorders, 2018, vol. 24, no. 5, pp. 681—692. DOI:10.1177/1087054718797428
  22. Shah A., Firth U. Why do autistic individuals show superior performance on the Block Design task? Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 1993, vol. 34, no. 8, pp. 1351—1364. DOI:10.1111/j.1469-7610.1993.tb02095.x
  23. Simon J.R. “The Simon effect”: A potent behavioral mechanism. Acta Psychologica, 2011, vol. 136, no. 2, p. 181. DOI:10.1016/j.actpsy.2010.04.007
  24. Wass S.V., Clackson K., Georgieva S.D., Brightman L., Nutbrown R., Leong V. Infants’ visual sustained attention is higher during joint play than solo play: is this due to increased endogenous attention control or exogenous stimulus capture? Developmental Science, 2018, vol. 21, no. 6, article no. e12667. DOI:10.1111/desc.12667
  25. Yu C., Suanda S.H., Smith L.B. Infant sustained attention but not joint attention to objects at 9 months predicts vocabulary at 12 and 15 months. Developmental Science, 2018, vol. 22, no. 1, article no. e12735. DOI:10.1111/desc.12735

Information About the Authors

Elena G. Karimulina, PhD in Psychology, Associate Professor of the Department of Neuro- and Pathopsychology of the Faculty of Clinical and Special Psychology, Moscow State University of Psychology and Education, Moscow, Russia, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1563-2364, e-mail: karimulina@list.ru

Nataliya G. Khlyustova, Magister, Moscow State University of Psychology and Education, Moscow, Russia, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8056-0280, e-mail: nhlustova@gmail.com

Metrics

Views

Total: 1595
Previous month: 104
Current month: 29

Downloads

Total: 961
Previous month: 13
Current month: 2