Eye-gaze behavior and emotional accuracy: a categorical and dimensional analysis of youth with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and autism spectrum disorder

Differences in emotion recognition and dwell time in the eye region of static emotional faces were examined in an all-male sample of children (mean age 10.1 years) with comorbid Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), children with ADHD without ASD, and typically developing children. Correlations between the Attention Problems and Withdrawn/Depressed subscales of the Child Behavior Checklist, dwell time in the eye region of emotional faces, and emotion recognition scores were examined. We hypothesized that the ADHD/ASD group would exhibit less dwell time in the eye region and impaired emotion recognition relative to the ADHD and control groups. However, we found no significant differences between groups on dwell time in the eye region or in emotion recognition. We also hypothesized that there would be no correlation between Attention Problems and dwell time or emotion recognition, but that both variables would be negatively correlated with Withdrawn/Depressed scores. We found no correlation between either subscale with the dependent variables. Implications and future research directions are discussed