sitting on their parent’s laps while viewing different types of visual information. Researchers measured both how the
reacted to simple visual changes in light (such as a line changing direction) and more complex patterns where the ability to see whole units were put to the test.
The assessment used EEG technology, which records weak electrical signals created naturally in the brain’s cerebral cortex when processing information. The signals were measured using electrodes placed around the head on a specially adapted cap.
Autistic Infants Have Different Perception of Movement
The infants who later on – at age three – exhibited many of the classic symptoms of autism had different brain activity when complex movement patterns were shown on the screen. This suggests that the brains of autistic people process visual motion differently from early infancy.
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Simpler visual changes, on the other hand, produced a clear and similar response in all of the children’s brains. Since autism has a strong hereditary component, the differences seen in visual perception in infancy are likely connected to genetic differences.
Correlating the results and previous studies of the relationship between brain activity and experience in adults with the diagnosis, it is plausible to believe that they experience it differently. It is also possible that this finding is related to the perception of complex social movements, such as the interpretation of facial expressions. This is something that needs to be investigated in future studies.
Autism cannot currently be diagnosed with good accuracy until around 2-3 years of age, but we hope that more knowledge about early development will enable us to make these assessments earlier in the future.
The results of this study showed statistically significant differences between groups, but it is important to emphasize that the accuracy of the EEG measurement was too low to be able to predict the development of individual children. It is therefore too early to tell whether this method will have clinical value for early detection.
Source: Eurekalert
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#Movement #Analysis #Infancy #Autism #Diagnosis
