Fixação do olhar e ansiedade em autistas adultos: um estudo de casos múltiplos sobre experiências privadas em interações sociais

Abstract

Deficits in communication and social interaction are one of the main characteristics for the diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and the difficulty in gaze fixation is a marked symptom in people with presents itself as a striking symptom in people with autism, associated with anxiety and commonly to impairments in various social areas of the individual's life. The perception of individuals with autism about their experience in face-to-face interaction situations is still poorly described in the in the scientific literature, especially from a qualitative approach. It is therefore important to further investigate the difficulties that adult autistic people encounter in social social interactions through accounts of their private experiences, especially in situations involving gaze fixation and its situations involving gaze fixation and its relationship with anxiety, which are still poorly described in scientific literature.This descriptive multiple case study with a mixed methodology approach (quantitative and qualitative) presents the complexity of the phenomenon through the accounts of the experiences of three adults diagnosed with autism, one with a support level, aged between 25 and 35, who are between 25 and 35 years old, who are integrated into society. For the quantitative data collection stage using eye tracking equipment, which records the areas of fixation of the gaze, a protocol was developed consisting of the display of four images, one with a non-social of a non-social stimulus (an object), two with social stimuli (human faces) and one with a social stimuli (human face and an object). Simultaneously with the collection of data from the eye tracker, the participant's heart rate (HR) was measured using a pulse pulse rate meter. Qualitative data was obtained using a semi-structured interview script focusing on the focused on the topic of "face-to-face interaction in social situations" and analyzed according to the criteria of according to the criteria of semiotic phenomenology. The results found in this case study present case study suggest that gaze fixation is only one of the factors that can contribute to anxiety during a situation of social interaction, therefore ruling out casuistry in this relationship. The quantitative data was used to support the qualitative analysis, revealing that the participants had greater cardiac variation when measuring heart rate during rest and less during the and lower during the display of the images, which can be explained by the reports on the strategies strategies developed to deal with face-to-face interaction situations.The results found in this case study present suggest that gaze fixation is only one of the factors that can contribute to anxiety during a situation of social interaction, therefore ruling out casuistry in this relationship. The quantitative data was used to support the qualitative analysis, revealing that the participants had greater cardiac variation in heart rate measurement during rest and less during the and lower during the display of the images, which can be explained by the reports on the strategies strategies developed to deal with face-to-face interaction situations. Based on the findings of the research, it was observed that during a situation of social interaction, gaze fixation is associated with various factors, such as the environment, the people involved, sensory sensitivities and the emotional loads, to trigger anxiety in individuals with autism. This highlights the importance of taking these factors into account in order to create interventions that promote the acquisition of important skills for the adaptation of these individuals in social situations.