Visual attention to social stimuli in 4-month-old infants at high risk for Autism

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are well-known early onset, neurodevelopmental disorders characterized by qualitative impairments in social communication and interaction, and by restricted, repetitive, and stereotyped behaviors, interests and activities. An increasing interest in timely detection of ASD red flags has emerged, mostly driven by the insight that early identification is a fundamental prerequisite for early intervention (Rogers et al., 2014; Venkataraman et al., 2016). Nevertheless, the pathogenesis of the social impairments that characterizes ASD is still largely unknown.Reduced early orienting and attention to social stimuli, such as faces or eye-gaze, but also biological motion, have been hypothesized to play a crucial role in the development of social impairments found in ASD (Hedger et al., 2020). These early signs are thought to have cascading effects on the typical development of the social brain network (Johnson, 2015), restricting the infants’ exposure to typical social interaction and, consequently, interfering with the emergence of critical developmental milestones relevant for adequate social cognition and communication capabilities. Within this theoretical framework, the present study sought to provide additional evidence on the origin of the early visual attention disturbance that seems to characterize at-high risk infants for ASD (e.g., siblings of children with ASD) within the first 4-5 months of life.