Reduced left visual field bias for faces in adolescents with social anxiety disorder.

Introduction: Individuals tend to explore the left side of a face first and for a longer time in comparison to the right side. This left visual field (LVF) bias is suggested to reflect right hemispheric dominance for face processing. Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is associated with maladaptive interpretations of facial expressions, but it is not known whether this is linked to an atypical LVF bias. Previous studies have reported a reduced LVF bias in autism, a condition overlapping with SAD. This pre-registered study examined the LVF bias in adolescents with SAD. Methods: Eye-tracking was used to investigate the ratio of first fixations to the left on upright and inverted face stimuli in 26 adolescents (13-17 years) with SAD and 23 healthy controls primed to look either between the eyes or at the mouth. Results: The SAD group showed a smaller LVF bias and an atypical face inversion effect when primed to look at the eyes. Autistic traits predicted a smaller LVF bias, independently of social anxiety level. Conclusions: Results suggest that SAD is associated with impaired processing of faces at an early stage of visual scanning. The findings contribute to a better understanding of SAD and its overlap with autism.

Williams syndrome: reduced orienting to other's eyes in a hypersocial phenotype.

Williams syndrome (WS) is a rare genetic condition associated with high sociability, intellectual disability, and social cognitive challenges. Attention to others' eyes is crucial for social understanding. Orienting to, and from other's eyes was studied in WS (n = 37, mean age = 23, age range 9-53). The WS group was compared to a typically developing comparison participants (n = 167) in stratified age groups from infancy to adulthood. Typically developing children and adults were quicker and more likely to orient to eyes than the mouth. This bias was absent in WS. The WS group had reduced peak saccadic velocities, indicating hypo-arousal. The current study indicates reduced orienting to others' eyes in WS, which may affect social interaction skills.

Delayed gaze shifts away from others' eyes in children and adolescents with social anxiety disorder.

BACKGROUND: Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is linked to atypical attention to other's eyes. Empirical literature about this phenomenon in childhood and adolescence is scarce. Previous studies in adults have suggested that SAD may be characterized by either rapid avoidance of eye contact, or by impaired shifting of attention away from eyes once eye contact has been established. SAD has also been linked to quick orienting towards eyes, indicating vigilant monitoring of perceived threat. METHODS: In the largest eye-tracking study of youth with SAD to date, 10 to 17 year-olds with SAD (n = 88) and healthy controls (n = 62) were primed to look at either the eyes or the mouth of human faces. The latency and likelihood of a first gaze shift from, or to the eyes, was measured. RESULTS: Individuals with SAD were slower to shift their gaze away from the eye region of faces than controls, but did not differ in orienting toward eyes. LIMITATIONS: Participants were assessed once after the onset of SAD symptoms, meaning that the longitudinal predictive value of delayed gaze shifts from others' eyes could not be examined. CONCLUSIONS: Youth with SAD may be impaired in shifting attention from other's eyes. This could contribute to the experience of eye contact as aversive, and may be a maintaining factor of childhood SAD.