ArticleMolecular autism2019
Visual attention to faces in children with autism spectrum disorder: are there sex differences?
Article in Molecular autism, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 52 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
52 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Eye Tracking as a Treatment Monitoring Tool for Autism: A Multilevel Meta-Analysis.Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research · 2025Pooled it
- Is There a Bias Towards Males in the Diagnosis of Autism? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Neuropsychology review · 2025Pooled it
- Gaze and social functioning associations in autism spectrum disorder: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research · 2022Pooled it
- Understanding the Effects of Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Interventions: A Project AIM Meta-analysis.Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research · 2021Pooled it
- Diametrically opposed sex-specific effects of autistic traits on risk-taking in poker.PCN reports : psychiatry and clinical neurosciences · 2026Article
- Home-based eye tracking for early autism screening: a scoping review of approaches, evidence, and implementation challenges.BMC psychiatry · 2026Article
- A "Round, Bruising Sort of Pain": Autistic Girls' Social Camouflaging in Inclusive High School Settings.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2026Article
- Advantages of combining multiple eye-tracking paradigms for distinguishing young autistic from non-autistic children.Molecular autism · 2026Article
- Relations Between Preferential Looking to Synchronous Audiovisual Speech and Expressive Language in Infants With Autistic and Non-Autistic Siblings.Mind, brain and education : the official journal of the International Mind, Brain, and Education Society · 2026Article
- Modeling gaze behavior with continuous-time markov chains to investigate social attention dynamics in autism.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Large-scale examination of early-age sex differences in neurotypical toddlers and those with autism spectrum disorder or other developmental conditions.Nature human behaviour · 2025Article
- Sex differences in the relationship between autistic traits and face-change discrimination sensitivity in the general population: a psychophysical investigation.Cognitive processing · 2025Article
- Association Between Joint Attention and Autism Traits in Young Adults: A Gaze-Contingent Eye-Tracking Study.Research in autism · 2025Article
- Sex-specific patterns in social visual attention among individuals with autistic traits.BMC psychiatry · 2025Article
- Visual Attention in Joint Attention Bids: A Comparison Between Toddlers with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Typically Developing Toddlers.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2025Article
- Cognitive flexibility in autism: How task predictability and sex influence performances.Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research · 2025Article
- Preserved but Un-Sustained Responses to Bids for Dyadic Engagement in School-Age Children with Autism.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2025Article
- Are the diagnostic rates of autistic females increasing? An examination of state-wide trends.Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines · 2024Article
- Sex differences in social brain neural responses in autism: temporal profiles of configural face-processing within data-driven time windows.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Social impairment in survivors of pediatric brain tumors via reduced social attention and emotion-specific facial expression recognition.Pediatric blood & cancer · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Background: The male bias in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) diagnoses is well documented. As a result, less is known about the female ASD phenotype. Recent research suggests that conclusions drawn from predominantly male samples may not accurately capture female behavior. In this study, we explore potential sex differences in attention to social stimuli, which is generally reported to be diminished in ASD. Population-based sex differences in attention to faces have been reported, such that typically developing (TD) females attend more to social stimuli (including faces) from infancy through adulthood than TD males. It is yet unknown whether population-based sex differences in the face domain are preserved in ASD. Methods: A dynamic, naturalistic infrared eye-tracking paradigm measured attention to social stimuli (faces) in 74 school-aged males and females with ASD (male Results: Results revealed a significant 3-way interaction between sex, diagnosis, and condition after controlling for chronological and mental age. ASD females attended more to faces than ASD males in the socially lean condition. This effect was not found in the typically developing (TD) group. ASD males attended less to faces regardless of social context; however, ASD females only attended significantly less to faces compared to TD females in the socially rich condition. TD males and ASD females did not differ in their attention to faces in either condition. Conclusions: This study has implications for how the field understands core social deficits in children with ASD, which should ideally be benchmarked against same-sex peers (male and female). Social attention in ASD females fell on a continuum-greater than their ASD male peers, but not as great as TD females. Overall, their social attention mirrored that of TD males. Improved understanding of the female social phenotype in ASD will enhance early screening and diagnostic efforts and will guide the development of sex-sensitive experimental paradigms and social interventions.
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Registered trials
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