Date of Award
2024
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science in Speech-Language Pathology
Department
Communicative Disorders
First Advisor
Alisa Baron
Abstract
The Broad Autism Phenotype (BAP) is a term used to describe Autism-like symptoms in individuals not diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) as well as the genetic transmission of these symptoms. Within this field of study, first-degree relatives, siblings, and parents are most often studied due to the direct path of genetic transmission. Within this group, there are several measurable characteristics used to explore the BAP. Of relevance to this study are neuropsychological characteristics, specifically potential atypicality while gazing at speaking human faces. While some studies have conducted analyses with this neuropsychological characteristic with siblings, there has yet to be a study analyzing parents of children with ASD (pASD). To analyze potential atypicality in viewing a speaking face, the current study utilized eye tracking to measure differences in how pASD view a speaking face. Specifically, the experimental stimuli used was of a speaking face producing the consonant-vowel syllable /ba/. To assess how the participants viewed the speaking face, interest areas were created to track the duration of time spent looking at the speaking face across trials. Using linear mixed effects models, the results of this study indicated no significant differences between pASD and their neurotypical peers within this audiovisual paradigm. Future research with a larger sample size is necessary to validate these findings. In addition to a larger, more diverse population, future research may involve both parents of a child with ASD or other first-degree relatives, such as siblings.
Recommended Citation
Molski, Joseph, "GATEWAY TO THE MIND: USING EYE TRACKING TO EXPLORE THE BROADER AUTISM PHENOTYPE" (2024). Open Access Master's Theses. Paper 2482.
https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/theses/2482