Scientists challenge the autism link in how babies look at faces
A major new analysis finds that infant eye-tracking behaviors long used as early autism markers actually reflect separate genetic pathways unrelated to autism risk. The finding could reshape how researchers and clinicians interpret social attention patterns in young children, affecting screening protocols and intervention strategies worth billions in early-care spending.
Originaltitel: The breakdown of social looking
<p>Individual differences in social looking are commonly believed to reflect one single heritable dimension tightly linked to autism. Yet, recent data suggest that in human infants, looking to eyes (rather than mouth) and preference for faces (versus non-social objects) reflect distinct genetic influences, and neither appear to have a clear-cut relation to autism.</p>