Paternal Autistic Traits are Predictive of Infants Visual Attention.

Since subthreshold autistic social impairments aggregate in family members, and since attentional dysfunctions appear to be one of the earliest cognitive markers of children with autism, we investigated in the general population the relationship between infants' attentional functioning and the autis...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Publicado en:	Journal of Autism & Developmental Disorders Vol. 44; no. 7; pp. 1556 - 1565
Autores principales:	Ronconi, Luca, Facoetti, Andrea, Bulf, Hermann, Franchin, Laura, Bettoni, Roberta, Valenza, Eloisa
Formato:	pictorial research tables/charts Journal Article
Publicado:	Springer Nature Jul2014
Acceso en línea:	Ver este registro en EBSCOhost

Descripción
Sumario:	Since subthreshold autistic social impairments aggregate in family members, and since attentional dysfunctions appear to be one of the earliest cognitive markers of children with autism, we investigated in the general population the relationship between infants' attentional functioning and the autistic traits measured in their parents. Orienting and alerting attention systems were measured in 8-month-old infants using a spatial cueing paradigm. Results showed that only paternal autistic traits were linked to their children's: (1) attentional disengagement; (2) rapid attentional orienting and (3) alerting. Our findings suggest that an early dysfunction of orienting and alerting systems might alter the developmental trajectory of future ability in social cognition and communication.