Autism and vision

People with autism can also have problems with their visual perception and new research suggests that their relatives may have difficulty too. Researchers from the University of Chicago studied 97 people, 57 of whom had first-degree relatives (siblings or parents) with autism. They tested the participants' saccades - their ability to move quickly from looking at one thing to looking at another - and their 'smooth-pursuit' eye movements i.e. the ability to follow a slowly-moving object. Compared to the other participants the people with autistic relatives performed more slowly and less accurately. The abnormalities in performance were associated with several brain pathways that have also been linked to autism.

You can find out more about this research by clicking on the title of this post.