Genetics may play a larger role how children see the world, and how that world is altered when a child has autism, a small observational study found.

Researchers writing in Nature examined 250 typically developing toddlers who watched videos of someone speaking or children playing where they could look at either the eyes, mouth, body or surrounding objects. Identical twins tended to look at the same thing, and looked at the subject's eyes and mouth at the same time compared to non-identical twins and non-sibling pairs. But when examining a group of children with autism, those children looked at the subject's eyes and mouth much less.

The authors said that their findings could lead to more findings about which genes are involved in social engagement and how autism may have the ability to interrupt these genetic pathways.

2017-07-12T15:19:16-0400

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Genetics May Dictate A Kid's View of the World (Nature - MedPage Today