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16th October 2015
08:49am BST

Dr Lynch explained: "Deficient functioning of these two cranial nerves makes it challenging for a child to maintain eye gaze. This is necessary for developing joint attention and for paying attention to dynamic features of a person's face.
"These fundamental physical behaviours are needed to develop language and socialisation."
While larger studies will be necessary to validate the findings and clinical trials begin next year, the research team at Washington State University hope that their discovery could pave the way to faster diagnosis of autism in children, which would speed up early intervention. “Our results suggest that an inexpensive, noninvasive pupil penlight reflex test could be a physiological measurement of autism,” added Dr Lynch.Explore more on these topics: