Eye Test Could Detect Autism, Says Study

A study has claimed that eye tests, which constitute of rapid movements of the eye, could help in detecting Autism spectrum disasters. The test will indicate deficits in an area of the brain that is essential and significant for emotional and social development. "These findings build upon a growing field of research that show that eye movement could serve as a window into a part of the brain that plays a role in a number of neurological and development disorders, such as Autism," said John Foxe, Ph.D., director of the University of Rochester Medical Center Del Monte Neuroscience Institute and co-author of the study.

Scientists focussed on the eye movements of people with ASD. Their eye tracking and coordination were noted. The people were asked to spot a visual target that appeared in different locations on the screen. The experiment's motive was to make the participant focus on different images in a rapid fashion. The patient would overshoot the intended target. In healthy individuals, the brain would correctly adjust eye movements as the task is repeated, but that would not be the case for people with autism. Participants who had ASD had difficulty in tracking the image on screen, signifying that their sensory motor controls were impaired.

"These finding suggest that assessing the ability of people to adapt saccade amplitudes is one way to determine whether this function of the cerebellum is altered in ASD," said Edward Freedman, associate professor at URMC. If these deficits do turn out to be a consistent finding in a sub-group of children with ASD, this raises the possibility that saccade adaptation measures may have utility as a method that will allow early detection of this disorder" he further state