Here’s how you can detect autism

Anew test, which consists of measuring rapid eye movements, may help identify people with Autism spectrum disorders (ASD), scientists say. The test may indicate deficits in cerebellum, an area of the brain that plays an important role in emotional and social development, researchers said.

“These findings build upon a growing field of research that show that eye movement could serve as a window into a part of the brain that plays a role in a number of neurological and development disorders, such as Autism,” said John Foxe from University of Rochester Medical Centre (URMC) in the US.

The rapid eye movements we make when we shift our attention from one object to another, known as saccades, are essential to navigating, understanding, and interacting with the world around us.

In healthy individuals, these saccades are rapid, precise, and accurate, redirecting the line of sight from one point of interest to another, researchers said.

The potential relevance of eye movement in individuals with Autism is the area of the brain that controls these actions, a denselypacked structure of neurons known as the cerebellum, they said. Considered to play a role in motor control, the cerebellum is now known to be essential to emotion and cognition via its connections to the rest of the brain.