Five-year-old children with autism spectrum disorders struggle with disengaging attention.

Abstract

It is known that individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) exhibit impairments in shifting attention. However, previous studies have primarily focused on school-aged children and adults with ASD. It remains unclear whether attentional shifting impairments emerge at an early age. Additionally, it is uncertain which specific process-engagement or disengagement-is affected in individuals with ASD. This study investigated the time course of attentional shifting in preschool-aged children with ASD using a Posner cue-target paradigm. The cue-target onset asynchrony was systematically manipulated to reveal both the early facilitation effect of attentional capture (i.e., engagement) and the later inhibitory aftereffect, commonly referred to as inhibition of return (IOR). Results showed an early facilitation effect in both ASD and typically developing (TD) children, indicating that ASD children engaged attention to salient spatial locations. In contrast to TD children, no reliable IOR effect was observed in ASD children, suggesting difficulties in disengaging attention. These findings indicate a selective impairment in attentional disengagement among preschool-aged children with ASD and support the need for early intervention programs focusing on attentional shifting.