Gender-Specific Patterns in Social Visual Attention Among Individuals with Autistic Traits

Background Autism is a neurodevelopmental condition with more prevalent in males, and its gender differences emerge in prevalence and core symptoms. However, most studies investigating the behavioral and cognitive features of autism tend to include more male samples, leading to a male-biased understanding. The gender imbalance limits the specificity of these features, especially considering female individuals with autism. Hence, it is necessary to explore gender-related differences with behavioral–cognitive traits linked to autism in the general population. Methods In this study, we designed a dynamic emotion-discrimination task to investigate gender differences in attention to emotional stimuli in general population with autistic traits. Behavioral and eye movement data were recorded during the task, and the Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ) was used to assess autistic traits. We drew heat maps and quantified the proportion of fixation time to analysis the gaze patterns of male and female groups. Results It was observed that there were significant differences in attention to the eye regions, particularly with females focus more to eyes than males. Moreover, we conducted correlation analyses between AQ scores and proportional fixation time to the eye region in two groups separately. Lower eye-looking was associated with higher level of autistic traits in males, but not in females. Conclusions Overall, the above results reveal the pattern of scanning faces differed in females and males, and autistic traits predicted trend of eye-looking in males. These findings suggest that the gender-related stratification in social attention among individuals with autistic traits, and these differences need to be considered during clinical diagnosis.