Neural correlates of response to joint attention in 2-to-5-year-olds in relation to ASD and social-communicative abilities: An fNIRS and behavioral study.
Toddlers with autism show quiet right-brain activity when they should be sharing gaze, linking prior behavioral warnings to a clear neural signature.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team used a portable brain-imaging cap called fNIRS. It shines safe light through the scalp to see blood flow.
They watched 2- to 5-year-olds with and without autism during a simple joint-attention game. The child followed an adult’s gaze or point to a toy.
While the kids played, the researchers recorded how often each child responded to joint attention and how much oxygen the right side of the brain used.
What they found
Typically developing toddlers lit up the right temporal area every time they followed gaze. Kids with autism showed almost no extra activation in that spot.
Less brain activity went hand in hand with fewer real-life joint-attention responses and lower social-affect scores.
How this fits with other research
Sullivan et al. (2007) first noticed that flat joint-attention scores at 14 months predict later ASD. The new study adds a reason: the brain area that should drive that skill is quiet.
Bottema-Beutel (2016) pooled many papers and showed that responding to joint attention links tightly to language gains in autism. Piatti et al. (2024) now show the neural gap that may slow both skills.
Liu et al. (2021) used eye-tracking and found autistic kids sync their gaze more slowly. The fNIRS data suggest the delay starts inside the right temporal lobe, not just the eyes.
Why it matters
You now have brain evidence that low RJA is more than a behavior quirk; it is a red-flag marker. When assessment shows poor gaze following, start joint-attention drills right away. Pair social games with visual or pointing cues that have worked in past studies. Track progress with brief RJA probes; rising scores may mean the neural network is waking up.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is associated with life-long challenges with social cognition, and one of its earliest and most common manifestations is atypical joint attention, which is a pivotal skill in social-cognitive and linguistic development. Early interventions for ASD children often focus on training initiation of joint attention (IJA) and response to joint attention bids (RJA), which are important for social communication and cognition. Here, we used functional near-infrared spectroscopy and behavioral measures to test typically developing (TD, n = 17) and ASD children (n = 18), to address the relationship between the neural correlates of RJA and social-communicative behavior. Group-level differences were present for RJA-specific activation over right temporal sites, where TD children showed higher levels of activation during RJA than ASD children, whereas the two groups did not differ in the control condition. Correlations between neural activation and behavioral traits suggest that, in ASD children, neural activation during RJA is related to the frequency of RJA behavior when the former is measured over left temporal sites, and to social affect symptoms when considered for right temporal sites. Possible implications of the evidenced correlations are discussed.
Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research, 2024 · doi:10.1002/aur.3149