Raw Data And Analysis Reports for the study "Social Attention Deficits in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Evidence of Overlap With Autism Spectrum Disorder"

<b>Aim:</b> Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) involves social cognitive impairments similar to those seen in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Although eye-tracking has been extensively utilized to objectively measure these deficits in ASD, its use in examining similar impairments in OCD remains limited. Clarifying whether OCD shares social attention deficits with ASD could improve our understanding of OCD’s underlying pathophysiology.<b>Methods:</b> Three groups—individuals with ASD (n = 14), OCD (n = 25), and neurotypical controls (NTC; n = 16)— who were comparable in age, gender, education, and intelligence completed two eye-tracking tasks: (1) static images containing social and perceptual norm violations, and (2) dynamic videos depicting interactive social scenarios. A mixed-design analysis of variance was conducted to compare eye-tracking parameters across groups.<b>Results:</b> While no significant differences emerged among groups in the static image task, OCD participants demonstrated ASD-like social attention patterns in dynamic video tasks. Specifically, in the video with competing non-social stimuli, both OCD (p = 0.034) and ASD (p = 0.023) groups fixated significantly less on faces compared to NTC participants.<b>Conclusions:</b> The results indicate that individuals with OCD may exhibit social attention patterns resembling those in ASD, supporting the hypothesis of shared endophenotypic traits. Dynamic, interactive video stimuli—particularly those containing competing non-social elements—were more sensitive than static images in detecting such impairments. This underscores the relevance of stimulus type in eye-tracking studies aimed at assessing social cognitive deficits. Future research should clarify mechanisms underlying these traits to elucidate the etiology of both disorders.