# Using Serious Game Technology to Improve Sensitivity to Eye Gaze in Autism

> **NIH NIH R33** · PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY, THE · 2020 · $513,530

## Abstract

Project Summary
Impairments in social communicative behaviors are primary in autism. Two of the most affected behaviors
include visual attention to faces and the ability to understand how eye gaze provides important information
about the actions and intentions of others. One theory is that the neural systems for face processing are
fundamentally compromised. However, our recent brain imaging findings suggest that there are contexts in
which these neural systems respond normally to animal faces, indicating that they are not compromised, but
likely tuned differently in autism. As a result, we hypothesize that there is an early disruption in the learning
environment that leads to this altered pattern of tuning and that this disruption is reflected by reduced attention
to faces and more attention to non-social stimuli. The long-term consequence is that individuals with autism
may never have learned about the functional significance of social signals from the face, like eye gaze cues.
We hypothesize that it may be possible to re-tune the face processing system and social looking behaviors in
autism by employing effective methods for encouraging individuals to focus visual attention on faces and
discover the functional significance of eye gaze cues. In turn, this may begin to treat symptoms of autism and
improve social functioning. We propose to develop and test an intervention for adolescents with autism that
employs evidence-based “serious game” principles (e.g., storylines, long-term goals, scaling difficulty).
“Serious games” are unique intervention tools that foster learning of difficult skills, with the goal of improving
real-world outcomes. Our intervention game is designed to scaffold learning to focus attention on faces while
interpreting eye gaze cues from animated human characters in the context of a narrative storyline. Participants
have to discover that eye gaze cues are useful for guiding their own goal-directed behavior to solve problems
in the game. This simulates the way social information cues are discovered and used in the real world and,
therefore, is more likely to generalize to real-world behavior.
We propose a two-stage exploratory study to test this intervention. In the R61 phase, we will utilize behavioral
and eye-tracking methods to examine pre- to post-test changes on our target mechanisms (attention to faces
and sensitivity to eye gaze cues) in adolescents who play the intervention game. In the R33 phase, we will
conduct a small-scale RCT comparing the intervention game to an active control game to assess outcomes at
multiple time points (pre-, post-, 6-month follow-up), and to evaluate improvements in a wide range of
behaviors, from controlled lab-based tasks to uncontrolled, real-world social interactions. Our aims are
evaluating 1) changes in the target mechanisms, 2) improved face-processing behaviors and real-world social
communication behaviors, and 3) the relation between engagement of the target mechanisms and sympto...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9935161
- **Project number:** 5R33MH110624-05
- **Recipient organization:** PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY, THE
- **Principal Investigator:** Kathryn Suzanne Scherf
- **Activity code:** R33 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $513,530
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2016-08-01 → 2024-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9935161

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9935161, Using Serious Game Technology to Improve Sensitivity to Eye Gaze in Autism (5R33MH110624-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9935161. Licensed CC0.

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