RT Journal Article SR Electronic(1) A1 Grynszpan, Ouriel A1 Bouteiller, Julie A1 Grynszpan, SĂ©verine A1 Martin, Jean-Claude A1 Nadel, Jacqueline YR 2022 T1 Social gaze training for Autism Spectrum Disorder using eye-tracking and virtual humans JF Interaction Studies VO 23 IS 1 SP 89 OP 115 DO https://doi.org/10.1075/is.21022.gry PB John Benjamins SN 1572-0373, AB Abstract

Background: Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have pronounced difficulties in attending to relevant visual information during social interactions. Method: We designed and evaluated the feasibility of a novel method to train this ability, by exposing participants to virtual human characters displayed on a screen which was entirely blurred, except for a gaze-contingent viewing window that followed participants’ eyes direction. The goal was to incite participants to direct their gaze towards the facial expressions of the virtual characters. Twenty-one adolescents with ASD who attended ordinary school were randomized to either an experimental group, who was trained during a month and a half, or to a control group. Social communicative abilities were assessed during pre, post and follow-up tests. Results: After training, the experimental group showed significantly more interest in facial expressions on a test which involved understanding a dialogue. Significant differences were not found for the other tests used. Conclusions: This outcome suggests that the training method fostered participants’ awareness of the relevance of facial expressions., UL https://www.jbe-platform.com/content/journals/10.1075/is.21022.gry