Could a Simple Eye Contact Test Detect Signs of Autism in Infants?

A recent study shows that a simple eye test conducted during infancy may be able to help doctors detect early signs of autism.

What's referred to as a group of developmental brain disorders, collectively called autism spectrum disorder (ASD), with the term "spectrum" referring to a wide range of symptoms, skills and levels of impairment or disability, can create mild problems to more severe developmental disabilities in those suffering from the health issue.

The study's current findings are based on one of the common features found in children diagnosed with autism. As babies normally start observing and focusing on human faces shortly following birth, these features are not always present in autistic children who may not be able to make eye contact.

Study authors monitored 110 newborns and followed their developments until the age of three. Babies with a family history of autism were also noted and put into separate groups.

Researchers played video clips of a caregiver to the children throughout the experiment while keeping track of their eye movements via equipment that measured and recorded eye movements. This also included the time the child spent looking at the caregivers different body parts and other objects shown in the video. This test was repeated throughout 10 different stages of growth over two months and two years.

Children were tested for autism around age three. Results showed that children diagnosed with autism typically lacked eye contact.

"This insight, the preservation of some early eye-looking, is important," said Dr. Warren Jones, who was involved in the study, via a press release. He underlined the importance of diagnosing the problem early in order to determine better treatment options. "In the future, if we were able to use similar technologies to identify early signs of social disability, we could then consider interventions to build on that early eye-looking and help reduce some of the associated disabilities that often accompany autism."

More information regarding the study can be found via the journal Nature.