Visual Exploration of Social Stimuli : Comparisons of Patients with ADHD or Autism and Healthy Controls

While observable social deficits are among the obligatory DSM 5 criteria for diagnosing Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), their empirical verification through the analysis of gaze movement patterns of social attention has proven difficult. According to a recent meta-analysis, one of the main abnormalities of ASD patients is processing of social complexity (Chita-Tegmark, 2016). The present study aims to elucidate the impact of social complexity on gaze movement patterns of ASD patients in comparison with ADHD patients, supposed to share aetiological factors (Rommelse et al., 2011). Four images with two levels of social complexity – one person versus four people – are presented, for 120 sec each, to children and adolescents with ADHD, ASD and healthy controls, aged 10-13 years (N=90; all native German speakers).