Genetic variants in a receptor for the hormone oxytocin may contribute to the range of social skills seen in individuals with and without autism, suggests a study published 4 February in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Children with autism are likely to keep more distance between themselves and a welcoming avatar than controls do in a virtual reality setup, suggesting that they derive less pleasure from social situations, according to a study published 17 January in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.
A lightweight eye-tracking system allows researchers to record the shifts in gaze that naturally occur during playtime, reports a study published 20 November in Frontiers in Psychology.
A subset of neurons in the amygdala is dedicated to recognizing eyes. But in people with autism, they may respond instead to the mouth, according to a report published 20 November in Neuron.
Two studies published in the past few months suggest that face-processing deficits in people with autism are complex and may depend on the task.
Baby boys later diagnosed with autism lose interest in other people’s eyes between 2 and 6 months of age, according to a study published today in Nature. This is the earliest behavioral marker of autism found to date.
Infants later diagnosed with autism tend to look at the hair and body of someone speaking to them instead of at the eyes and mouth, which convey social cues, reports a study published 13 August in Biological Psychiatry.
When trying to recognize a face, children with autism look at the same general features as controls do, but tend to focus on the right eye rather than the left, according to a study published 8 August in the Journal of Vision.
Children with autism tend to miss the facial cues that make yawning contagious, suggests a study published 22 July in Autism Research and Treatment.
Studying regression in Rett syndrome may help us understand the phenomenon in autism, as it occurs at the same time in both disorders and includes many of the same features, says Jeffrey Neul.