Mel Rutherford the associate professor of psychologyin the Faculty of Science is leading an Early Autism Study and has been utilizing the eye tracker technology to measure the eye direction of an infant. They study how well a baby can follow bouncing balls on a computer screen with their face and eyes.
A connection between autism and the preservative e thimerosal vaccine is on trial again. The second hearing at the United States Court of Federal Claims began this week. At the end of three hearings they will decide what is best to compensate almost 4,800 parents who believe that their children were damaged by the preservative because it is mercury-based.
Scientists believe that parents who have any type of psychiatric problem could increase a child’s risk of being autistic. During the research doctors discovered that the amount of autistic children was higher when their parents have suffered from depression, schizophrenia, or other psychiatric disorders.
“Our research shows that mothers and fathers diagnosed with schizophrenia were about twice as likely to have a child diagnosed with autism,” said Julie Daniels of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, who worked on the study. “We also saw higher rates of depression and personality disorders among mothers, but not fathers,” she said in a statement.