January 28, 2012: A baby's gaze may reveal the earliest signs of autism, indicating that they are already processing social information differently, finds a b study from the Center for Brain and Cognitive Development (CBCD), Birkbeck College, University of London, and reported on by Shari Roan for the La Times Booster Shots.
Usually autism is not diagnosed until a child is at least 2 years old, but if therapy can begin early on in infancy, it might give the child a better chance at overcoming social and behavioral deficits.
Researchers, led by co-authors Mark Johnson, director of the CBCD, and Mayada Elsabbagh, examined infants at risk of developing autism at 6 months to 10 months of age from the Autism Baby Siblings Research program; the infants were considered at high risk because they had an older sibling with autism. Researchers placed sensors on the scalp to register brain activity while the babies viewed faces; the faces sometimes looked at the babies and other times looked away. This is important because eye contact is a primary form of social interaction for babies and studies have found that children with autism tend to avoid eye contact.
The study found that babies who went on to develop autism had different brain activity during an eye-contact test compared with babies who did not develop autism.
The study was published Thursday in the journal Current Biology.
Comments