Research on social attention in autism and the challenges of the research domain criteria (RDoC) framework.

Mundy (2023) wrote a narrative review. The paper asks the National Institute of Mental Health to fold 40 years of social-attention data into its Research Domain Criteria (RDoC).

Instead of keeping autism in a separate box, the author wants social-attention traits measured on a sliding scale that runs across diagnoses.

The review does not give new numbers. It argues that eye-tracking, pointing, and joint-attention scores should sit inside RDoC’s Social Processes domain.

Doing so could let researchers study why some autistic kids, ADHD kids, and typical kids show similar gaze patterns without being forced into one label.

Murray et al. (2005) made an earlier push to move autism assessment away from social symptoms and toward attention style. Mundy (2023) widens the lens by asking for a full dimensional home inside RDoC, not just a new checklist item.

Emerson et al. (2023) mapped 50-plus parent-responsiveness coding tools. Peter’s call would let those tools speak the same metric language under one RDoC column, making cross-study comparisons easier.

Murray et al. (2014) warned that using only diagnosed groups hides true symptom links. A shared RDoC social-attention scale could solve that problem by letting researchers measure the trait in everyone, diagnosed or not.

If you assess social skills, you currently jump between ADOS scores, parent reports, and eye-tracking summaries that do not line up. A future RDoC social-attention module could give you one ruler to measure joint attention, gaze shift, or pointing across all clients. Watch for pilot tools; start collecting baseline social-attention data now so you are ready when a common metric drops.