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  • Title: Social visual attentional engagement and memory in Phelan-McDermid syndrome and autism spectrum disorder: a pilot eye tracking study.
    Author: Guillory SB, Baskett VZ, Grosman HE, McLaughlin CS, Isenstein EL, Wilkinson E, Weissman J, Britvan B, Trelles MP, Halpern DB, Buxbaum JD, Siper PM, Wang AT, Kolevzon A, Foss-Feig JH.
    Journal: J Neurodev Disord; 2021 Dec 04; 13(1):58. PubMed ID: 34863106.
    Abstract:
    BACKGROUND: The current study used eye tracking to investigate attention and recognition memory in Phelan-McDermid syndrome (PMS), a rare genetic disorder characterized by intellectual disability, motor delays, and a high likelihood of comorbid autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Social deficits represent a core feature of ASD, including decreased propensity to orient to or show preference for social stimuli. METHODS: We used a visual paired-comparison task with both social and non-social images, assessing looking behavior to a novel image versus a previously viewed familiar image to characterize social attention and recognition memory in PMS (n = 22), idiopathic ASD (iASD, n = 38), and typically developing (TD) controls (n = 26). The idiopathic ASD cohort was divided into subgroups with intellectual disabilities (ID; developmental quotient < 70) and without (developmental quotient > 70) and the PMS group into those with and without a co-morbid ASD diagnosis. RESULTS: On measures of attention, the PMS group with a comorbid ASD diagnosis spent less time viewing the social images compared to non-social images; the rate of looking back and forth between images was lowest in the iASD with ID group. Furthermore, while all groups demonstrated intact recognition memory when novel non-social stimuli were initially presented (pre-switch), participants with PMS showed no preference during the post-switch memory presentation. In iASD, the group without ID, but not the group with ID, showed a novelty preference for social stimuli. Across indices, individuals with PMS and ASD performed more similarly to PMS without ASD and less similarly to the iASD group. CONCLUSION: These findings demonstrate further evidence of differences in attention and memory for social stimuli in ASD and provide contrasts between iASD and PMS.
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