Sex differences in social attention in autism spectrum disorder

This publication is included in the Autistic Autism Scholarship Project. one author of this publication is identified as autistic in the project.

About the autistic author marker

Harrop, C., Jones, D., Zheng, S., Nowell, S. W., Boyd, B. A., & Sasson, N. (2018). Sex differences in social attention in autism spectrum disorder. Autism Research, 11(9), 1264-1275. https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.1997

Publication date: 1 Sep 2018 Added to AutiHub: 23 Oct 2026 Type: Article Article language: English

This publication is integrated into AutiHub through:

Authors

Publication authors
6
Publication authors identified as autistic
1 / 6 (16.7%)

Abstract

Although reduced social attention and increased nonsocial attention have been reported in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the studies have relied on predominantly male samples and have been underpowered to examine sex differences. These processes may differ for females with ASD, who have been shown to be dissimilar to males in social motivation and nonsocial features, including circumscribed interests (CI). The goal of this study was to compare social and nonsocial visual attention between males and females with ASD on a validated eye‐tracking paradigm. Eighty‐five school‐aged (6–10 years) males and females with and without ASD completed a paired preference task of face and object stimuli (half of which related to common CI). After covarying for chronological and mental age, the presence of concurrently presented CI images reduced prioritization and attention to faces for males more than females, replicating previous findings. ASD females maintained comparable attention patterns to typically developing females, suggesting that previous findings of reduced social attention and increased attention to CI‐related objects in autism may be specific to males. These findings are also inconsistent with the “extreme male brain” theory of autism. The more normative orienting and attention to social stimuli for females with ASD may indicate distinct phenotypic characteristics relative to males and possibly serve as a protective effect. Autism Res 2018, 11: 1264–1275. © 2018 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Lay Summary As autism is more commonly diagnosed in males, less is known about females with autism. Two areas of interest include the interests held by individuals with autism and how socially motivated they are. We used eye tracking as a way to understand these two areas. Our data reveal that elementary school‐aged females (6–10 years) with autism attended to faces comparatively to females without autism, suggesting that (1) they were more socially motivated than males with autism and (2) the images of common interests were less motivating to them.

Bibliography cited by this reference

Cited references are imported from external metadata sources when they are available. The list may be partial.

Cited bibliography overview

These indicators describe the bibliography cited by this publication. An author name is counted each time it appears in one cited reference, so the same person can be counted more than once. Names not yet linked to an author already present in AutiHub are treated as unknown, not as non-autistic. Last computed: 23 Oct 2026 17:25.

Cited references
55
With a DOI
50
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
5
0 / 55 (0.0%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
0 / 55 (0.0%)
References with detected author names
55 / 55 (100.0%)
Without detected author names
0
Without a structured title
0
Without a stable identifier
5
References with raw author names still to review
0
References with external metadata lookup issues
2
These indicators apply to cited references displayed on this page, after technical duplicates have been merged. A reference without a DOI can still support author statistics when a title and author names are available.
Author names detected in the cited bibliography
248
From DOI or external metadata
248
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
0
89 / 248 (35.9%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 159 / 248 (64.1%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
0 / 248 (0.0%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 0 / 89 (0.0%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 0 / 198 (0.0%).
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