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.
To study attention in people with autism during complex social situations, researchers have developed a virtual reality version of public speaking, according to a study published 20 May in Autism Research.
When choosing whether to look at a face or an object, children with autism generally pick the same thing controls do, according to a study published 10 April in Frontiers in Psychiatry. The finding contradicts the widely held belief that people with autism tend not to look at faces.
Girls with autism carry more mutations than do boys with the disorder, and show greater differences in brain activity and response to social cues, according to several preliminary studies presented at the 2013 International Meeting for Autism Research in San Sebastián, Spain.
An intervention designed to help infants at high risk for autism also improves interactions between parents and their children, says a study published 27 March in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.
Tracking eye movements in people with autism may provide insight into the variety of symptoms of the disorder, says Rich Krauzlis.
Three new studies published in March suggest that some infants who have a high risk of developing autism show early differences in brain responses to sight and sound.
Children with both autism and language impairment have similar trouble suppressing their reflexes and avoiding distractions during a visual task compared with language-impaired children without autism, according to a study published in the January issue of Developmental Science.
Men with autism drive as well as controls do, but they focus less on the road ahead, according to research published 22 January in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.