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Paternal Autistic Traits are Predictive of Infants Visual Attention

Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders volume 44, pages 1556–1564 (2014)Cite this article

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.

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Acknowledgments

This research project was supported by two grants: one from Università di Padova Progetti di Ricerca di Ateneo 2011 (code CPDA113109/11) and one from Progetti di Eccellenza CARIPARO (rep. no. 1873/2012). The authors are deeply indebted to the infants who took part in the study and to their parents. We also thank Caterina Masiero for her technical help.

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Author notes

  1. Laura Franchin

    Present address: Department of Psychology and Cognitive Science, University of Trento, Trento, Italy

Affiliations

  1. Developmental and Cognitive Neuroscience Lab, Department of General Psychology, University of Padua, Padua, Italy

    Luca Ronconi, Andrea Facoetti & Roberta Bettoni

  2. Developmental Neuropsychology Unit, Scientific Institute “E. Medea”, Bosisio Parini, Italy

    Andrea Facoetti

  3. Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy

    Hermann Bulf

  4. Infant Cognitive Lab, Department of Developmental and Socialization Psychology, University of Padua, Padua, Italy

    Laura Franchin & Eloisa Valenza

  5. Interdepartmental Center for Cognitive Science (CISC), Università degli Studi di Padova, Via Venezia 8, 35131, Padua, Italy

    Eloisa Valenza

  6. Dipartimento di Psicologia dello Sviluppo e della Socializzazione, Università degli Studi di Padova, Via Venezia 8, 35131, Padua, Italy

    Eloisa Valenza

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  1. Luca Ronconi
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  2. Andrea Facoetti
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  3. Hermann Bulf
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  4. Laura Franchin
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Correspondence to Eloisa Valenza.

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Luca Ronconi, Andrea Facoetti and Hermann Bulf have contributed equally to this work and have co-first authorship.

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Ronconi, L., Facoetti, A., Bulf, H. et al. Paternal Autistic Traits are Predictive of Infants Visual Attention. J Autism Dev Disord 44, 1556–1564 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-013-2018-1

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Keywords

  • Broader autism phenotype
  • Spatial attention
  • Temporal attention
  • Frontoparietal network
  • Right temporoparietal junction
  • Social brain development