Attentional Cueing and Executive Deficits Revealed by a Virtual Supermarket Task Coupled With Eye-Tracking in Autism Spectrum Disorder

Executive functioning (EF) impairments in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) impact on complex functions, such as social cognition. We assessed this link between EF, attentional cueing, and social cognition with a novel ecological task, “EcoSupermarketX.” Our task had three blocks of increasing executiv...

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Published inFrontiers in psychology Vol. 12; p. 671507
Main Authors Mouga, Susana, Duarte, Isabel Catarina, Café, Cátia, Sousa, Daniela, Duque, Frederico, Oliveira, Guiomar, Castelo-Branco, Miguel
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Frontiers Media S.A 31.08.2021
Subjects
attentional cueing
autism spectrum disorder
ecological task
executive functioning
eye-tracking
Psychology
social cognition
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ISSN1664-1078
1664-1078
DOI10.3389/fpsyg.2021.671507

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Summary:Executive functioning (EF) impairments in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) impact on complex functions, such as social cognition. We assessed this link between EF, attentional cueing, and social cognition with a novel ecological task, “EcoSupermarketX.” Our task had three blocks of increasing executive load and incorporated social and non-social cues, with different degrees of saliency. Performance of ASD and typical neurodevelopment was compared. The ASD showed a significant performance dependence on the presence of contextual cues. Difficulties increased as a function of cognitive load. Between-group differences were found both for social and non-social salient cues. Eye-tracking measures showed significantly larger fixation time of more salient social cues in ASD. In sum, EcoSupermarketX is sensitive to detect EF and attentional cueing deficits in ASD.
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Edited by: Roumen Kirov, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS), Bulgaria
These authors have contributed equally to this work and share senior authorship
This article was submitted to Psychopathology, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychology
Reviewed by: Roberta Fadda, University of Cagliari, Italy; Nan Yan, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), China
ISSN:1664-1078
1664-1078
DOI:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.671507