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Nature Research, Scientific Reports, 1(5), 2015

DOI: 10.1038/srep08284

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Shorter spontaneous fixation durations in infants with later emerging autism

Journal article published in 2015 by Sam V. Wass, Tim J. Smith, Teodora Gliga, Team Basis, Simon Baron-Cohen, Helen Maris, Tony Charman, Emily J. H. Jones ORCID, Rachael Bedford, Greg Pasco, Patrick Bolton, Andrew Pickles, Susie Chandler ORCID, Helena Ribiero, Mark H. Johnson and other authors.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

AbstractLittle is known about how spontaneous attentional deployment differs on a millisecond-level scale in the early development of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). We measured fine-grained eye movement patterns in 6-to 9-month-old infants at high or low familial risk (HR/LR) of ASD while they viewed static images. We observed shorter fixation durations (i.e. the time interval between saccades) in HR than LR infants. Preliminary analyses indicate that these results were replicated in a second cohort of infants. Fixation durations were shortest in those infants who went on to receive an ASD diagnosis at 36 months. While these findings demonstrate early-developing atypicality in fine-grained measures of attentional deployment early in the etiology of ASD, the specificity of these effects to ASD remains to be determined.