Autistic Traits and Symptoms of Social Anxiety are Differentially Related to Attention to Others’ Eyes in Social Anxiety Disorder

© 2016, The Author(s). Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and social anxiety disorder (SAD) have partly overlapping symptoms. Gaze avoidance has been linked to both SAD and ASD, but little is known about differences in social attention between the two conditions. We studied eye movements in a group of...

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Main Authors: Kleberg, J., Högström, J., Nord, M., Bolte, Sven, Serlachius, E., Falck-Ytter, T.
Format: Journal Article
Published: Springer New York LLC 2017
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/63501
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author Kleberg, J.
Högström, J.
Nord, M.
Bolte, Sven
Serlachius, E.
Falck-Ytter, T.
author_facet Kleberg, J.
Högström, J.
Nord, M.
Bolte, Sven
Serlachius, E.
Falck-Ytter, T.
author_sort Kleberg, J.
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description © 2016, The Author(s). Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and social anxiety disorder (SAD) have partly overlapping symptoms. Gaze avoidance has been linked to both SAD and ASD, but little is known about differences in social attention between the two conditions. We studied eye movements in a group of treatment-seeking adolescents with SAD (N = 25), assessing SAD and ASD dimensionally. The results indicated a double dissociation between two measures of social attention and the two symptom dimensions. Controlling for social anxiety, elevated autistic traits were associated with delayed orienting to eyes presented among distractors. In contrast, elevated social anxiety levels were associated with faster orienting away from the eyes, when controlling for autistic traits. This distinction deepens our understanding of ASD and SAD.
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institution Curtin University Malaysia
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last_indexed 2025-11-14T10:26:22Z
publishDate 2017
publisher Springer New York LLC
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-635012018-02-06T07:41:15Z Autistic Traits and Symptoms of Social Anxiety are Differentially Related to Attention to Others’ Eyes in Social Anxiety Disorder Kleberg, J. Högström, J. Nord, M. Bolte, Sven Serlachius, E. Falck-Ytter, T. © 2016, The Author(s). Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and social anxiety disorder (SAD) have partly overlapping symptoms. Gaze avoidance has been linked to both SAD and ASD, but little is known about differences in social attention between the two conditions. We studied eye movements in a group of treatment-seeking adolescents with SAD (N = 25), assessing SAD and ASD dimensionally. The results indicated a double dissociation between two measures of social attention and the two symptom dimensions. Controlling for social anxiety, elevated autistic traits were associated with delayed orienting to eyes presented among distractors. In contrast, elevated social anxiety levels were associated with faster orienting away from the eyes, when controlling for autistic traits. This distinction deepens our understanding of ASD and SAD. 2017 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/63501 10.1007/s10803-016-2978-z Springer New York LLC unknown
spellingShingle Kleberg, J.
Högström, J.
Nord, M.
Bolte, Sven
Serlachius, E.
Falck-Ytter, T.
Autistic Traits and Symptoms of Social Anxiety are Differentially Related to Attention to Others’ Eyes in Social Anxiety Disorder
title Autistic Traits and Symptoms of Social Anxiety are Differentially Related to Attention to Others’ Eyes in Social Anxiety Disorder
title_full Autistic Traits and Symptoms of Social Anxiety are Differentially Related to Attention to Others’ Eyes in Social Anxiety Disorder
title_fullStr Autistic Traits and Symptoms of Social Anxiety are Differentially Related to Attention to Others’ Eyes in Social Anxiety Disorder
title_full_unstemmed Autistic Traits and Symptoms of Social Anxiety are Differentially Related to Attention to Others’ Eyes in Social Anxiety Disorder
title_short Autistic Traits and Symptoms of Social Anxiety are Differentially Related to Attention to Others’ Eyes in Social Anxiety Disorder
title_sort autistic traits and symptoms of social anxiety are differentially related to attention to others’ eyes in social anxiety disorder
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/63501