The Development of Face Orienting Mechanisms in Infants At-risk for Autism

Overview

Journal Behav Brain Res

Specialties Neurology
Psychology
Social Sciences

Date 2012 Aug 1

PMID 22846849

Citations 86

Authors

Mayada Elsabbagh

Teodora Gliga

Andrew Pickles

Kristelle Hudry

Tony Charman

Mark H Johnson

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

A popular idea related to early brain development in autism is that a lack of attention to, or interest in, social stimuli early in life interferes with the emergence of social brain networks mediating the typical development of socio-communicative skills. Compelling as it is, this developmental account has proved difficult to verify empirically because autism is typically diagnosed in toddlerhood, after this process of brain specialization is well underway. Using a prospective study, we directly tested the integrity of social orienting mechanisms in infants at-risk for autism by virtue of having an older diagnosed sibling. Contrary to previous accounts, infants who later develop autism exhibit a clear orienting response to faces that are embedded within an array of distractors. Nevertheless, infants at-risk for autism as a group, and irrespective of their subsequent outcomes, had a greater tendency to select and sustain attention to faces. This pattern suggests that interactions among multiple social and attentional brain systems over the first two years give rise to variable pathways in infants at-risk.

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