Babies with frequent eye movements linked to autism

Frequent eye movements in babies could be a clue to whether they will develop an autism spectrum disorder, a Medical Research Council study suggests.

Using eye-tracking technology, researchers measured 100 six-month-old babies looking at a static image.

Those later diagnosed with ASD moved their eyes around more often, which could be a cause of learning problems.

Autism charities said the findings could help identify children at risk of autism.

Dr Sam Wass, lead author of the study from the MRC's cognitive brain sciences unit, said this was a new finding that needed to be checked with more research on more babies.

The study stressed that eye movement on its own was not a reliable indicator that a child could be diagnosed with autism in the future.

But it could be a subtle early indicator of behavioural difficulties and a different way of processing visual information, Dr Wass said.

"Adults with autism spectrum disorders can sometimes process visual information more rapidly than other people, and perhaps that was happening for infants in our study.

"Alternatively, it could be that these babies need a higher level of stimulation, so they move their eyes more frequently to get more stimulation.

"Or it could be that when they look at something they are not engaging with it in the same way as other children tend to."

Rapid scanning

The research, carried out at Birkbeck, University of London, found that while most babies moved their eyes about twice a second, babies who were later diagnosed with ASD tended to move their eyes more often - about three times a second.

Although the difference was small, it was still significant, Dr Wass said.

The babies with more frequent eye movements were scanning the image more rapidly than the others.

Babies who were at higher risk of ASD in the study also showed little variation in their frequent eye movements compared with the low-risk group.

Dr Judith Brown, head of autism knowledge and expertise at the National Autistic Society, said babies could develop very differently.

"Parents of children with autism frequently tell us that they knew at a very early stage that their baby did not respond to the world around them in the same way as their peers.

"This study increases our understanding of the differences in visual attention in infants who go on to develop autism and may provide us with an extra diagnostic tool in the future which will help parents access the right support for their child at the right time."

Dr Simon Wallace, research director at Autistica, a charity for autism research, said the study was useful.

"This research is adding to growing evidence about very early brain and behavioural differences that indicate whether an infant is at elevated risk for autism."