Investigating Visual Information Retention in Autism Spectrum Disorder

Sonia-Frida Ndifon*, Shuo Wang, Ph.D, Jacob Suffridge
Erma Byrd Biomedical Research Center, Morgantown, WV 26506

Presentation Category: Physical Sciences & Engineering (Poster presentation)

Student’s Major: Biomedical engineering

Humans by nature are social beings, constantly interacting with others. Visual attention is critical to the early development of language and communication skills and also influences our thoughts, decisions, memory, and actions. However, people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) tend to show profound impairments in visual attention, especially to social stimuli. To further study the difference in visual attention for individuals with ASD and neurotypical people, our lab utilizes real-time eye tracking. We incorporate the well-documented OSIE dataset of over 5000 annotated objects across 700 unique images. In addition to recording the movement of the eyes, a simple memory task is incorporated after every image presentation to assess whether the participant remembers viewing the presented image. The images are presented across both a learning and recognition session, separated by 15 minutes, in which certain images can be viewed a total of one, two or even three times. The results of this new experiment will help us determine not only how the images are viewed but also how memory can affect these visual patterns. Normally, those with ASD tend to experience difficulties with memory and remembering information. For this reason, we expect to see a significant difference in the number of images an individual with ASD will recall when compared to controls.

Funding: Not funded

Program/mechanism supporting research/creative efforts: WVU's Research Apprenticeship Program (RAP) & accompanying HONR 297-level course