Eye Tracking Expanding Autism Research
Researchers in adolescent autism recently implemented a study using eye tracking. They wanted to find out how the impairment of the mirror neuron system (MNS) in children would affect their social skills.
The mirror neuron system allows humans to relate to each other emotionally by watching someone and then mirroring that gesture mentally.
For example, when seeing a picture of someone in fear, the mirror neuron system will cause that viewer to feel fear. The mirror neuron system is critical in a person’s ability to relate to and empathize with others.
In the study, the researchers found that developing children without autism could easily imitate emotions observed in others, whereas children with autism lacked the ability to imitate and understand emotions. Through the use of both eye tracking and fMRI, the researchers observed that developing children have high MNS activity, while autistic children lacked activity in the same region of their brain.
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