Emotion Intensity Modulates Intention in ASD

Emotional Expression Intensity Modulates Intention Understanding in Children With ASD: Evidence From Eye Tracking and Hidden Markov Modeling

This study used eye-tracking to examine how emotional expression intensity (low/medium/high) influences intention understanding in children with ASD, PDD, and TD during a puzzle-search task.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Intellectual Disability; Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

Detailed Description

This study examined how emotional expression intensity influences children's intention understanding during a puzzle-search task. Children with ASD, PDD, and typical development (TD) watched videos in which a model searched for a missing puzzle piece under three levels of emotional expression intensity: low, medium, and high. Eye-tracking measures were used to assess both the outcome and the dynamic process of intention understanding.

• Study Type: Observational
• Enrollment (Actual): 80

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• China
  • Sichuan
    • Chengdu, Sichuan, China, 611731
      • School of Foreign Languages, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Child
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

• Sampling Method: Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

Failure to meet the study's group-specific screen cutoffs on the Social Responsiveness Scale(SRS) and ADOS-2; Known genetic syndromes, significant hearing loss, or uncorrectable visual impairment.

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

- Typically developing children without any developmental or neurological disorders.

Confirmed clinical diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder and reconfirmed by the criteria of the Diagnostic Observation Table for ASD, Second Edition (ADOS-2).

Confirmed clinical diagnosis of Intellectual Disability and the ADOS-2 with a comparison score below the ASD diagnostic cut-off score (comparison score≤2).

Exclusion Criteria:

- Normal or corrected-to-normal vision, no color vision deficiencies, and legal guardian provided written informed consent.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Number of groups / cohorts

3

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) Group
Typically Developing (TD) Group
Intellectual Disability（ID）Group

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
The visitation rate of the AOI	Number of times the gaze enters the AOI per unit time. It measures how frequently the AOI is re-visited. Higher rates indicate repeated returns, reflecting high interest or difficulty disengaging; lower rates suggest rare or brief attention.	From second 3 to second 30 of the experimental stimulus.
The proportions of fixation duration	fixation duration on an AOI ÷ total fixation duration (or across multiple AOIs). It measures the relative amount of attention allocated to a specific area. Higher proportions indicate prioritized or deeper processing of that region.	During the full 40 seconds video presentation.
The first fixation latency	The First Fixation Latency = time from TOI onset until the first fixation lands on a predefined object. It measures how fast attention is initially drawn to that object. Shorter latencies indicate higher salience or more efficient search.	During the full 40 seconds video presentation.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
The face fixation transition ratio	Number of gaze transitions from any non-face AOI to a face ÷ total number of gaze transitions. It measures how often attention shifts toward faces. Higher ratios indicate stronger social orienting or difficulty disengaging from faces.	From second 13 to second 15 of the experimental stimulus.

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Electronic Science and Technology of China

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): December 15, 2025
• Primary Completion (Actual): January 29, 2026
• Study Completion (Actual): March 27, 2026

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: May 6, 2026
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 13, 2026
• First Posted (Actual): May 19, 2026

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): May 19, 2026
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 13, 2026
• Last Verified: May 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: social cognition; eye tracking; emotional expression intensity; hidden Markov modeling (HMM)
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Neurologic Manifestations; Nervous System Diseases; Mental Disorders; Neurobehavioral Manifestations; Neurodevelopmental Disorders; Child Development Disorders, Pervasive; Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms; Signs and Symptoms; Autism Spectrum Disorder; Intellectual Disability
• Other Study ID Numbers: UESTC-GazeLab-06

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: UNDECIDED

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No