TY - JOUR
T1 - Eye Gaze in Autism Spectrum Disorder
T2 - A Review of Neural Evidence for the Eye Avoidance Hypothesis
AU - Stuart, Nicole
AU - Whitehouse, Andrew
AU - Palermo, Romina
AU - Bothe, Ellen
AU - Badcock, Nicholas
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, The Author(s).
PY - 2022/2/4
Y1 - 2022/2/4
N2 - Reduced eye contact early in life may play a role in the developmental pathways that culminate in a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder. However, there are contradictory theories regarding the neural mechanisms involved. According to the amygdala theory of autism, reduced eye contact results from a hypoactive amygdala that fails to flag eyes as salient. However, the eye avoidance hypothesis proposes the opposite—that amygdala hyperactivity causes eye avoidance. This review evaluated studies that measured the relationship between eye gaze and activity in the ‘social brain’ when viewing facial stimuli. Of the reviewed studies, eight of eleven supported the eye avoidance hypothesis. These results suggest eye avoidance may be used to reduce amygdala-related hyperarousal among people on the autism spectrum.
AB - Reduced eye contact early in life may play a role in the developmental pathways that culminate in a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder. However, there are contradictory theories regarding the neural mechanisms involved. According to the amygdala theory of autism, reduced eye contact results from a hypoactive amygdala that fails to flag eyes as salient. However, the eye avoidance hypothesis proposes the opposite—that amygdala hyperactivity causes eye avoidance. This review evaluated studies that measured the relationship between eye gaze and activity in the ‘social brain’ when viewing facial stimuli. Of the reviewed studies, eight of eleven supported the eye avoidance hypothesis. These results suggest eye avoidance may be used to reduce amygdala-related hyperarousal among people on the autism spectrum.
KW - Amygdala
KW - Autism spectrum disorder
KW - Eye avoidance
KW - Eye gaze
KW - Social brain
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85124355163&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s10803-022-05443-z
DO - 10.1007/s10803-022-05443-z
M3 - Review article
C2 - 35119604
AN - SCOPUS:85124355163
JO - Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders
JF - Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders
SN - 0162-3257
ER -