ACCURATELY diagnosing autism can be difficult, especially in young children.
However, US specialists now say the way you view this optical illusion can help diagnose the condition.
Specialists say the way you view this optical illusion can help diagnose autism Credit: Science Alert
If someone fails to quickly spot the white square while focusing on the black marks they are likely to have mild autism, the study found.
People who have the condition may find they have to focus directly on the white square itself to see the illusion.
That’s because people who have autism process information differently to neurotypical people and tend to focus on just one thing intently rather than an entire picture.
Study author, Dr Emily Knight, a neurologist from the University of Rochester, said: “How our brain puts together pieces of an object or visual scene is important in helping us interact with our environments.
“When we view an object or picture, our brains use processes that consider our experience and contextual information to help anticipate sensory inputs, address ambiguity, and fill in the missing information.”
Autism is an incurable and lifelong developmental condition that affects how people perceive the world and interact with others.
It affects 100 people in the UK and is three to four times more common in boys than in girls, according to the National Autistic Society.
New autism research suggests the sooner a child gets diagnosed and receives help, the greater the chance for learning and progress.
The latest study, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, tested the brain activity of 60 children aged seven to 17 with the condition while they processed the optical illusion.
Dr Emily said the results suggest children with autism “may not be able to do the same predicting and filling in of missing visual information as their peers”.
“We now need to understand how this may relate to the atypical visual sensory behaviours we see in some children on the autism spectrum,” she added.
What are the signs and symptoms of autism?
If you are worried about any of your or your child’s symptoms, then you should speak to a GP.
In young children, the NHS says the key signs are:
not responding to their nameavoiding eye contactnot smiling when you smile at themgetting very upset if they do not like a certain taste, smell or soundrepetitive movements, such as flapping their hands, flicking their fingers or rocking their bodynot talking as much as other childrennot doing as much pretend playrepeating the same phrases
In older kids, autism might look like:
not seeming to understand what others are thinking or feelingunusual speech, such as repeating phrases and talking ‘at’ othersliking a strict daily routine and getting very upset if it changeshaving a very keen interest in certain subjects or activitiesgetting very upset if you ask them to do somethingfinding it hard to make friends or preferring to be on their owntaking things very literally – for example, they may not understand phrases like “break a leg”finding it hard to say how they feel.