Abstract
BackgroundEarly emerging characteristics of visual orienting have been associated with a wide range of typical and atypical developmental outcomes. In the current study, we examined the development of visual disengagement in infants at risk for autism.MethodsWe measured the efficiency of disengaging from a central visual stimulus to orient to a peripheral one in a cohort of 104 infants with and without familial risk for autism by virtue of having an older sibling with autism.ResultsAt 7 months of age, disengagement was not robustly associated with later diagnostic outcomes. However, by 14 months, longer latencies to disengage in the subset of the risk group later diagnosed with autism was observed relative to other infants at risk and the low-risk control group. Moreover, between 7 months and 14 months, infants who were later diagnosed with autism at 36 months showed no consistent increases in the speed and flexibility of visual orienting. However, the latter developmental effect also characterized those infants who exhibited some form of developmental concerns (but not meeting criteria for autism) at 36 months.ConclusionsInfants who develop autism or other developmental concerns show atypicality in the development of visual attention skills from the first year of life.
Highlights
Emerging characteristics of visual orienting have been associated with a wide range of typical and atypical developmental outcomes
We examined the development of visual disengagement in infants at risk for autism
By 14 months, longer latencies to disengage in the subset of the risk group later diagnosed with autism was observed relative to other infants at risk and the low-risk control group
Summary
We measured the efficiency of disengaging from a central visual stimulus to orient to a peripheral one in a cohort of 104 infants with and without familial risk for autism by virtue of having an older sibling with autism. Siblings (www.basisnetwork.org) took part in the current study (54 at-risk, 21 male infants and 50 low-risk, 21 male infants). During the 36-month visit, a battery of clinical research measures was administered including the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule and the Autism Diagnostic Interview. Supplement 1 presents detailed participant characteristics www.sobp.org/journal including ascertainment of risk status, background measures at each visit, and outcome characterization including clinical classification. Infants were classified as at risk-other either because they did not meet criteria for a diagnostic classification for autism but scored above cutoff on the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule or Autism Diagnostic Interview or they had low IQ scores (Ͻ1.5 SD). Detailed characteristics of each group are presented in Supplement 1
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