Brain Scans Probe Joint Attention

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), researchers have for the first time identified brain regions activated by joint attention, the process in which two people direct their attention to the same object, person or topic of conversation. The findings appeared 16 April in Human Brain Mapping.Joint attention skills emerge in the first two years of life. Children with autism tend to have trouble both initiating and responding to interactions involving joint attention.Most studies investigating the neural underpinnings of joint attention have looked at how individuals with autism respond to other people’s eye movements. The new study is the first to measure brain activity during real-time social interactions between an individual with autism and another person.Read more at...SFARI, June 2012.