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Article published In: Interaction Studies
Vol. 23:1 (2022) ► pp.89–115

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Social gaze training for Autism Spectrum Disorder using eye-tracking and virtual humans

 | Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
 | Œuvre de Secours aux Enfants
 | Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
 | Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
 | Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
Published online: 20 October 2022
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https://doi.org/10.1075/is.21022.gry
Abstract
Background: Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have pronounced difficulties in attending to relevant visual information during social interactions. Method: We designed and evaluated the feasibility of a novel method to train this ability, by exposing participants to virtual human characters displayed on a screen which was entirely blurred, except for a gaze-contingent viewing window that followed participants’ eyes direction. The goal was to incite participants to direct their gaze towards the facial expressions of the virtual characters. Twenty-one adolescents with ASD who attended ordinary school were randomized to either an experimental group, who was trained during a month and a half, or to a control group. Social communicative abilities were assessed during pre, post and follow-up tests. Results: After training, the experimental group showed significantly more interest in facial expressions on a test which involved understanding a dialogue. Significant differences were not found for the other tests used. Conclusions: This outcome suggests that the training method fostered participants’ awareness of the relevance of facial expressions.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Method
    • 2.1Participants
    • 2.2Design
    • 2.3Material
      • 2.3.1Experimental training material
      • 2.3.2Control training material
      • 2.3.3Measuring instruments
    • 2.4Procedure
  • 3.Results
  • 4.Discussion
  • 5.Conclusion
  • References
References (50)
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