Developmental differences in infant gaze patterns as a cue for caregiver greeting between neurotypically developing infants and infants later diagnosed with autism Restricted; Files Only
Markowitz, Harleigh (Spring 2025)
Abstract
The infant-caregiver dyad is a mutually adaptive relationship in which caregivers intuitively adjust their behavior to scaffold their infant’s emerging social capabilities, such that both infant and caregiver behaviors, and their relationship to each other, change through early development. A distinctive, interactive behavior unique to early infancy is caregiver greeting, an infant-directed cue characterized by the caregiver opening their mouth, widening their eyes, and raising their eyebrows. It is hypothesized that caregiver greeting engages infants in social interaction by prompting them to shift their gaze toward the eyes of their interactive partner. Differences in infant attention to the eyes (i.e., eye-looking) in response to caregiver greeting in autism may provide insight into how divergent interactions with caregivers during infancy relate to emergent social disability in autism. This study explores the temporal relationship between infant eye-looking and caregiver greeting, investigating whether this relationship changes as a function of infant age and differs between dyads with neurotypically developing infants (NT) and dyads with infants later diagnosed with autism (AUT). This hypothesis was tested using prospective, longitudinal data from 42 dyads with infants aged 2-3.4 months (20 NT, 22 AUT) and 44 dyads with infants aged 5.1-6.5 months (22 NT, 22 AUT), corresponding to the age groups where greeting and infant eye-looking show their greatest increase and peak in magnitude, respectively (Ford et al., 2024; Jones & Klin, 2013). Peristimulus time histograms computed the temporal linkage between infant eye-looking and caregiver greeting. Significant linkages between infant eye-looking and caregiver greeting were comparable in duration and magnitude in the younger and older AUT samples. No linkage was found in the younger NT sample, but a robust, seconds-long linkage was found in the older NT sample. Thus, the temporal linkage between infant eye-looking and caregiver greeting only showed age-related differences in the NT dyads. These findings provide novel insight into changes in the relationship between infant eye-looking and caregiver greeting in the first six postnatal months, fostering a greater understanding of brain and behavior informed by early neurodiversity.
Table of Contents
Introduction and Background .......... 1
Research Aims and Hypotheses .......... 6
Materials and Methods .......... 7
Participant Selection .......... 7
Sample Size .......... 8
Data Collection .......... 10
Caregiver Greeting .......... 10
Eye-Tracking Data .......... 11
Peristimulus Time Histograms .......... 12
Figures .......... 13
Results .......... 17
Greeting Probabilities .......... 17
Start of Greeting .......... 18
Duration of Greeting .......... 18
Proportion of Eye-Looking .......... 19
Peristimulus Time Histograms .......... 20
Discussion .......... 36
Neurotypical Developmental Trajectories and the Temporal Linkage Between Infant Eye Gaze and Caregiver Greeting in NT Dyads .......... 36
Diagnostic Differences in the Temporal Linkage Between Infant Eye Gaze and Caregiver Greeting .......... 39
Conclusion .......... 42
References .......... 45
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File download under embargo until 22 May 2027 | 2025-04-01 15:14:57 -0400 | File download under embargo until 22 May 2027 |
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