Understanding the difference in pupil dilation between children with and without ASD during a joint attention memory task

Sheppard, E. and Lohan, K. S. and Little, G.E. and Bonnar, L. and Kelly, S. and Rajendran, G.; (2017) Understanding the difference in pupil dilation between children with and without ASD during a joint attention memory task. In: 3rd Workshop on Child-Robot Interaction at Human-Robot Interaction 2017, Vienna, Austria. Child-Robot Interaction, AUT.

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Abstract

Problems with joint attention are core features of autism spectrum disorders. Here, we investigated changes in the pupil diameter of children with ASD and typically developing children, when they initiate joint attention with a gaze contingent avatar. 31 participants with ASD and 33 TD matched controls, directed the avatar’s gaze to face images. We sought to use the pupil diameter as a metric to differentiate these two groups. We will show the difference in pupil behaviour through an unsupervised k-means classification.