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Subject: EARLIEST MARKER FOR AUTISM FOUND IN YOUNG INFANTS

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH
NIH News National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
<http://www.nimh.nih.gov/> Embargoed for Release: Wednesday, November 6,
2013, 1 p.m. EST
                                           
CONTACT: Keri Chiodo, NIMH Press Office, 301-443-4536,
<e-mail:[log in to unmask]>

EARLIEST MARKER FOR AUTISM FOUND IN YOUNG INFANTS NIH-funded study finds
attention to others' eyes declines in 2 to 6-month-old infants later
diagnosed with autism 

Eye contact during early infancy may be a key to early identification of
autism
<http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/autism-spectrum-disorders-pervasive-d
evelopmental-disorders/index.shtml>, according to a study funded by the
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), part of the National Institutes
of Health. Published this week in the journal Nature, the study reveals the
earliest sign of developing autism ever observed-a steady decline in
attention to others' eyes within the first two to six months of life. 

"Autism isn't usually diagnosed until after age 2, when delays in a child's
social behavior and language skills become apparent. This study shows that
children exhibit clear signs of autism at a much younger age," said Thomas
R. Insel, M.D., director of NIMH. "The sooner we are able to identify early
markers for autism, the more effective our treatment interventions can be."

Typically developing children begin to focus on human faces within the first
few hours of life, and they learn to pick up social cues by paying special
attention to other people's eyes. Children with autism, however, do not
exhibit this sort of interest in eye-looking. In fact, a lack of eye contact
is one of the diagnostic features of the disorder.

To find out how this deficit in eye-looking emerges in children with autism,
Warren Jones, Ph.D., and Ami Klin, Ph.D., of the Marcus Autism Center,
Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, and Emory University School of Medicine
followed infants from birth to age 3. The infants were divided into two
groups, based on their risk for developing an autism spectrum disorder.
Those in the high risk group had an older sibling already diagnosed with
autism; those in the low risk group did not. 

Jones and Klin used eye-tracking equipment to measure each child's eye
movements as they watched video scenes of a caregiver. The researchers
calculated the percentage of time each child fixated on the caregiver's
eyes, mouth, and body, as well as the non-human spaces in the images.
Children were tested at 10 different times between 2 and 24 months of age. 

By age 3, some of the children -- nearly all from the high risk group -- had
received a clinical diagnosis of an autism spectrum disorder. The
researchers then reviewed the eye-tracking data to determine what factors
differed between those children who received an autism diagnosis and those
who did not.

"In infants later diagnosed with autism, we see a steady decline in how much
they look at mom's eyes," said Jones. This drop in eye-looking began between
two and six months and continued throughout the course of the study. By 24
months, the children later diagnosed with autism focused on the caregiver's
eyes only about half as long as did their typically developing counterparts.

This decline in attention to others' eyes was somewhat surprising to the
researchers. In opposition to a long -- standing theory in the field-that
social behaviors are entirely absent in children with autism -- these
results suggest that social engagement skills are intact shortly after birth
in children with autism. If clinicians can identify this sort of marker for
autism in a young infant, interventions may be better able to keep the
child's social development on track.     

"This insight, the preservation of some early eye-looking, is important,"
explained Jones. "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."

The next step for Jones and Klin is to translate this finding into a viable
tool for use in the clinic. With support from the NIH Autism Centers of
Excellence <http://www.nichd.nih.gov/research/supported/pages/ace.aspx>
program, the research team has already started to extend this research by
enrolling many more babies and their families into related long-term
studies. They also plan to examine additional markers for autism in infancy
in order to give clinicians more tools for the early identification and
treatment of autism.

Grant: R01MH083727

About the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH): The mission of the
NIMH is to transform the understanding and treatment of mental illnesses
through basic and clinical research, paving the way for prevention,
recovery, and care. For more information, visit <http://www.nimh.nih.gov>.  
 
About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation's medical
research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of
the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal
agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical
research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both
common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs,
visit <www.nih.gov>.

NIH...Turning Discovery into Health -- Registered, U.S. Patent and Trademark
Office
------------
The htm version of this release contains an example stimuli overlaid with
eye-tracking data
<http://www.nih.gov/news/health/nov2013/images/nimh-06_l.jpg>
CAPTION:
Decline in eye fixation reveals signs of autism present already within the
first 6 months of life. Data from a 6-month-old infant later diagnosed with
autism are plotted in red. Data from a typically developing 6-month-old are
plotted in blue. The data show where the infants were looking while watching
a video of a caregiver.
Source: Warren Jones, Ph.D., Marcus Autism Center, Children's Healthcare of
Atlanta, and Emory University School of Medicine
------------
REFERENCE:
Jones W, Klin A. Attention to eyes is present but in decline in
2-6-month-old infants later diagnosed with autism. Nature, Nov. 6, 2013.
###

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