Skip to main content

Spectrum: Autism Research News

Tag: joint attention

February 2013

Andrew Meltzoff & Patricia Kuhl: Joint attention to mind

by  /  11 February 2013

Husband and wife research team Andrew Meltzoff and Patricia Kuhl have shown that learning is a fundamentally social process, beginning in early infancy.

Comments

Robots could fill in for autism therapists

by  /  6 February 2013

Robots may be able to help treat children with autism when qualified therapists aren’t available, according to a study published 3 December in IEEE Translational Neural Systems Rehabilitation Engingeering.

Comments
October 2012
White gloved hands hold a white mug and white saucer against a black background.

Cognition and behavior: Children with autism struggle to mime

by  /  30 October 2012

Children with autism have trouble imitating others’ actions, a trait that may be linked to their poor motor skills, according to a study published 10 September in PLoS One.

Comments

New technologies may aid early detection of autism

by  /  8 October 2012

Emerging technologies and software may help assess the subtle behaviors, such as gaze or social gestures, that go awry in children with autism, researchers said at the Engineering and Autism conference earlier this month.

Comments

Automated analyses may improve study of social deficits

by  /  5 October 2012

Sophisticated eye-tracking tools and other technologies are making it easier to record and analyze social interactions, and may help researchers study social deficits in children with autism. Researchers debuted some of these tools 28 September at the Engineering and Autism conference in Los Angeles.

Comments
September 2012

Candid camera

by  /  4 September 2012

Home videos suggest that babies later diagnosed with autism gesture differently than typically developing babies or those with other developmental disorders.

Comments
June 2012

Cognition and behavior: Brain scans probe joint attention

by  /  12 June 2012

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, researchers have for the first time identified brain regions activated by joint attention, the process in which two people direct their attention to the same object, person or topic of conversation. The findings appeared 16 April in Human Brain Mapping.

Comments
May 2012

Clinical research: Early interventions improve language

by  /  18 May 2012

Toddlers with autism who receive behavioral interventions that improve joint attention — engaging and following others’ focus — have better language ability five years later than do controls, according to a study published in May in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

Comments

Giving fathers oxytocin boosts levels in babies

by  /  17 May 2012

Two new studies on oxytocin, the so-called ‘trust hormone,’ suggest new avenues for using the drug to treat autism.

Comments

Social motivation, reward and the roots of autism

Social impairments in autism are likely a consequence of deficits in social motivation that start early in life and have profound developmental consequences, says psychologist Robert Schultz.

Comments