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The phenotype of autism includes poor eye contact and impaired social communication. In previous research, autistic individuals, compared with healthy controls, had lower fusiform activation, less gaze fixation on eyes, and amygdalar activation that correlated with eye fixation (Journal Watch Psychiatry Jun 8 2005). This research has now been extended to siblings of the autistic subjects.
The participants (mean age, 14) were 12 autistic individuals, 12 unaffected siblings, and 10 healthy unrelated controls. Researchers assessed gaze and performed functional MRIs while participants looked at photographs of faces and inanimate objects. Volumetric studies were also conducted, but only in the 27 males because of sex differences in limbic anatomy…