Objective To explore the characteristics of food preferences in children with autism spectrum disorder,in order to provide some reference for treating the odd diet habits.Methods Comparing food selection styles through a self-made parents questionnaire including 113 kinds of common food in six categories in China in 162 cases of neurotypical children (NC) and 162 cases of children with autism (AC) to investigate the food preference characteristics of autistic children.Results Compared with NC,AC had narrow food repertoire in grain (NC refuse 0.0(1.0),AC refuse 1.0(2.0),P＜0.001),beans(NC refuse 0.0(1.0),AC refuse 1.0(2.0),P＜ 0.05),meat (NC refuse 0.0 (0.0),AC refuse 0.0 (2.0),P＜ 0.05),vegetables (NC refuse 3.0 (5.0),AC refuse 6.0(1.0),P＜0.001) and fruits(NC refuse 0.0(1.0),AC refuse 2.0(5.0),P＜0.001).There was no difference in the food preferences in neurotypical children of different gender.However,AC boys were more selective in the grain (NA girls refuse 0.0 (1.0),AC boys refuse 1.0 (2.0),P＜ 0.05) and vegetables (NA girls refuse 3.5 (5.0),AC boys refuse 7.0(11.0),P＜0.05) than AC girls.Moreover,AC had higher preference to lower acceptance in most of food than NC,but not instant noodles(NC acceptance 71.01％,AC acceptance 81.02％,P＜0.05) and chilli (NC acceptance 20.71％,AC acceptance 28.47％,P＜0.05).Conclusion Compared with NC,AC have narrower food repertoire.On the other hand,AC have significantly higher acceptance of stimulating food like chili and instant noodle.

Objective:To explore the characteristics of eye tracking movement on circumscribed interests in preschool children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), providing some reference for behavior correction and rehabilitation training.Methods:Fifty ASD children and fifty-two age-matched typically developing children(TDC) were investigated by the childhood autism rating scale(CARS), the autism diagnostic observation schedule(ADOS), the autism diagnostic interview-revised (ADI-R) and Gesell Developmental Schedule, (GDS). Eye movement during the visual search task was captured by the Tobii Pro X3-120 eye tracker.All data were analyzed by the IBM SPSS Statistics 20.0.Eye movement patterns were compared between TDC and ASD children using the independent-sample t test, and the correlations were then analyzed between abnormal eye movement characteristics and their core syndrome. Results:The total scores of CARS, ADOS and ADI-R in ASD group were 34.13±4.59, 14.44±2.59 and 39.91±12.11 respectively.During passive viewing of complex non-social picture arrays, ASD and TDC group explored total number of images were 9.28±2.72 and 12.67±2.45.The fixation time per image explored in ASD and TDC group were (0.67±0.37)ms and (0.54±0.15)ms.Moreover, the number of discrete fixations per image explored in ASD and TDC group was 2.80±1.00 and 2.48±0.48.Compared with the TDC group, ASD children demonstrated circumscribed attention ( t=6.610, P<0.01) with more perseveration ( t=-2.363, P=0.021) and detail-orientation ( t=-2.360, P=0.021). Exploration was negatively correlated with the total score of ADOS ( r=-0.480, P<0.01), CARS ( r=-0.487, P<0.01), communication score of ADOS( r=-0.290, P=0.041), social score of ADOS( r=-0.491, P<0.01), game score of ADOS( r=-0.397, P=0.004)and communication score of ADI-R( r=-0.331, P=0.025)in the ASD group. Conclusion:Compared with TDC, the eye movement pattern shows the circumscribed interests of ASD children, who not only explore fewer objects but also demonstrate circumscribed attention with more perseveration and detail-orientation.Moreover, the more severe the symptoms of ASD children, the fewer objects the children explore and the more stereotyped the circumscribed interest.