Nursery World - Eye contact study reveals autism risk in babies

Researchers claim that autism could be detected in babies as early as six-months-old, as a new study reveals that children at risk of the condition show different brain responses when someone looks at them.

A team from the Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development at Birkbeck University in London, co-led by the Centre for Research in Autism and Education at the Institute of Education, measured the brain activity of babies aged six-ten months old at greater risk of developing autism because they had an older brother or sister with the condition.

Sensors were used to measure children’s brain activity while they were shown faces that switched from looking at them to looking away from them or vice versa.

The usual response of the human brain is to show characteristic patterns of activity in reaction to eye contact with another person, whereas older children diagnosed with autism show unusual patterns of eye contact and brain responses to social interaction such as eye contact.

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