Responses to Sad Emotion in Autistic and Normal Developing Children: Is There a Difference?

Abstract

This paper describes how the gazing pattern differ between the responses of Normal Developing (ND) and Autistic (AP) children to sad emotion. We employed an eye tracking technology to collect and track the participants’ eye movements by showing a dynamic stimulus (video) that showed a gradual transition from pale emotions to melancholy facial expressions in both female and male faces. The location of the child's gaze in the stimulus was the focus of our data analysis. We deduced that there was a distinction between the two groups based on this. ND children predominantly concentrated on the eyes and mouth region of both male and female sad faces, but AP children showed no interest in these areas by glancing away from the stimuli faces. Based on the findings, an ideal eye tracking model for early ASD diagnosis can be constructed. This will aid in the early treatment of Autism children as well as the development of socio-cognitive skills.