Babies at higher genetic risk for autism watch animations and play games while a custom hairnet records their brain activity, tracking how the social brain develops before any symptoms appear. The social brain—a network of regions tuned to faces, eyes, and hands—is well understood in adults, but almost nothing is known about how it forms during the first years of life. Autism is typically diagnosed around age three, but how it emerges earlier remains unclear. This study follows infant siblings of children with autism, measuring brain function and eye movements from infancy through to age three, when diagnostic tests can confirm whether symptoms have appeared. If the research succeeds, it could identify early warning signs of autism long before current diagnosis is possible. That would allow interventions to begin during infancy, potentially preventing full symptoms from developing in some children. The work is fundamental science—understanding how a key brain network normally assembles, and what goes wrong in atypical development. Similar foundational studies of early brain development have previously opened routes to earlier diagnosis and targeted support for other neurodevelopmental conditions.
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As adults we all have a network of regions within our brains that are tuned to process social stimuli such as faces, eyes, and hands. This network is sometimes called the ?social brain?, and very little is currently known about the way it develops over the first years of life. Aside from the basic science interest, this topic is important to study since it will help us understand the developmental disorder, autism. Autism can be a serious disorder that significantly impacts on the whole family, as well as on the individual concerned. While the symptoms of autism have been carefully studied beginning at the age of diagnosis (usually around 3 years), how it emerges over the earlier years remains a mystery. A better understanding of the early warning signs for later appearing autism is essential for developing interventions that may prevent the full symptoms from appearing in at least some individuals. We have pioneered methods to investigate brain function and development in infants, and will now apply these methods to baby siblings of older children diagnosed with autism. These babies are at greater risk for developing autism because they are genetically related to an older child with autism. Babies will take part in activities designed to be fun and stimulating for them, like watching animations on a television screen or playing games with the researcher. Sophisticated techniques are used to measure brain and behavioural development. For example, eye-tracking techniques are used to measure precisely where babies are looking and how quickly they move their eyes, and natural brain activity can be measured using a custom-designed, baby-friendly, ?hairnet?. When the children reach 2 and 3 years of age, we will conduct tests to see whether or not they show symptoms of autism. In those children who do show symptoms of autism, we will re-examine the data on their brain function and behaviour from the first two years in order to understand the factors that differentiate them from babies who did not go on to develop autism. This information will improve our knowledge of the earliest core symptoms of autism, and will help in the design of interventions that may alleviate the condition in some children.
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