The study of infants at familial risk for developing autism has revealed a variety of early brain and behavioural markers for this disorder. Brain connectivity, processing of gaze direction, attention shifting or reacting to sensory stimulation are all atypical during the first year of life in those high-risk infants who later develop symptoms of autism. Future research will have to determine whether these early signs are predictive of autism outside populations at risk and whether they are specific to autism.