LOCKING EYES: The path an observer’s eyes take as they scan an image of a human face is superimposed over that image. Dots indicate pauses or fixations in eye movement, and lines show the rapid jumps or saccadic eye movements between those points.WIKIMEDIA COMMONS/SPOOSPA
Just the briefest eye contact can heighten empathetic feelings, giving people a sense of being drawn together. But patients who suffer from autism, even in its most high-functioning forms, often have trouble establishing this sort of a social connection with other people. Researchers are delving into what’s going on behind the eyes when these magical moments occur, and the hormones and neural substrates involved may offer hope of helping people with autism.
University of Cambridge neuroscientist Bonnie Auyeung and colleagues gave oxytocin—a compound commonly referred to as the “love hormone,” as it’s been found to play roles in maternal and romantic bonding—to both normal men and those with a high-functioning form of autism also called Asperger’s syndrome. The scientists then tracked the eye movements of ...
