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. © 2013 Springer Science+Business Media.
Ronconi, L., Facoetti, A., Bulf, H., Franchin, L., Bettoni, R., Valenza, E. (2014). Paternal autistic traits are predictive of infants visual attention. JOURNAL OF AUTISM AND DEVELOPMENTAL DISORDERS, 44, 1556-1564 [10.1007/s10803-013-2018-1].
Paternal autistic traits are predictive of infants visual attention
BULF, HERMANN SERGIO;Bettoni, R;
2014
Abstract
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. © 2013 Springer Science+Business Media.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.