A new study reveled that a few aspects of autism are hereditary.

The study researchers, who carried out psychological examinations on 42 parents of children having autism, discovered that these parents appeared to be "socially aloof."

Lead researcher Dr. Joe Piven of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and neuroscientist Dr. Ralph Adolphs, of the California Institute of Technology accriied out the research with the help of his fellow workers.

The findings has been published in the July 17 issue of Current Biology.

Dr. Joe Piven stated, “Autism manifests as a tendency not to prefer interactions with others, not to enjoy 'small talk' for the sake of the social experience, and to have few close friendships involving sharing and mutual support. This characteristic is really a variation of the normal range of social behavior and not associated with any functional impairment.”

Autism is a brain growth disorder, which harms social interaction and communication, and leads to restricted and repetitive behavior, all starting before a child is 3 years old. There is no treatment for autism. People have started trusting that autism is a condition rather than a disorder.

Social disabilities in autistic children become evident during childhood and continue through adulthood. Autistic babies show less attention to social stimuli, smile and observe others less often, and react less to their own name.

The research conducted by Dr. Joe Piven and Dr. Ralph Adolphs entailed parents participation in an experiment that measured how they make use of the face to judge emotions. Those parents categorized as "aloof" looked more to the mouth than the eyes to identify emotion.

“We found that some parents who have a child with autism process face information in a subtly, but clearly different way from other parents. This is evidence for the hypothesis that the parents with the autistic child have brains that function somewhat differently as well,” said Ralph Adolphs.

The study researchers told that recognizing parents with such behaviors may help in naming genesdefine responsible for such behaviors.

The research was funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health and the Simons Foundation.