People With Autistic Siblings 'Are Less Empathetic'
From ANI
London, July 14: A new research has revealed that siblings of autism sufferers have a dormant aspect of the disorder, which affects their brain activity.
Scientists have known for some time that the brothers and sisters of those with autism are up to 100 times more likely to suffer from the disorder.
But the new research has shown that these siblings also share a ?biomarker? for the condition and their brains are less responsive to facial emotions than would traditionally be expected.
In the study 120 teenagers were shown a selection of faces and asked to judge whether these were male or female and happy or neutral while scientists monitored their brain activity.
The siblings of autism sufferers showed significantly less response to the emotive faces than people who were not related to those with the disorder.This echoed the diminished reaction of those diagnosed with the condition.
The groundbreaking research could pave the way for treatments or even a cure for sufferers of autism and Asperger's syndrome.
Dr Michael Spencer, a child psychologist who led the study at the University of Cambridge's Autism Research Centre, said the findings were ?surprising?.?There is scientific consensus that genes are an overweighing factor in developing autism as opposed to environmental factors,? the Daily Mail quoted him as saying.?Previous studies have compared people without autism and those with the disorder, but it was more useful to compare siblings with the controls to identify causes.
?As yet there is no treatment or cure. But if we can identify the building blocks of autism then we can hopefully find treatments for it.
?And we will be able to understand the biomarkers that each person with the condition has and create treatments specific to their symptoms.
?We hope to be able to identify what caused the brain to react to different faces and understand why people with autism have less brain activity in response to them.
?We were surprised by the results of the siblings as they showed such similar brain activity to people with autism, but from the outside they appear totally unaffected,? he added.
Copyright Asian News International/DailyIndia.com
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