Dr. Howard Smith Oncall

x https://www.instagram.com/p/C4gTotpLcsd/ Those children with autism spectrum disorder, ASD, commonly carry the SCN2A genetic variation.  This mutation that affects the flow of electrical signals in and out of brain cells has broad impacts on the developing neurologic system.   These include a likelihood of seizures but also changes to the eyes’ motor controls.  UC-San Francisco neurologists have exploited these changes to the so-called oculomotor system to identify children with the SCN2A mutation and and autism in its many forms.   Using an eye tracking device that visualizes a child’s eye movement when asked to focus on a person or object, the child without the mutation consistently does so which a child with SCN2A and autism cannot focus consistently. This mutation is also associated with other neurologic issues, but the oculomotor test is a rapid gateway into the diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder. https://www.cell.com/neuron/abstract/S0896-6273(24)00055-2?_returnURL=https://linkinghub.elsevier.c