Scientists may have discovered why toddlers with autism avoid eye contact – the answer, they don’t.

According to a new study, young children with the condition don’t actively avoid meeting another person’s gaze, but instead find no interest in doing so.

It was previously thought that toddlers avoid eye contact because they find eye contact unpleasant.

The researchers found that toddlers are largely disinterested in making eye contact because they cannot gain any social information from the interaction – the findings of which can be beneficial for future treatments.

They say that if eye contact is merely unimportant to the children, then parents and therapists could help them understand why it is important in typical social interactions.

The work also has implications for whether researchers who study eye contact should focus on social brain regions rather than those involved in fear and anxiety, the report says.

Study leader Warren Jones, director of research at the Marcus Autism Center in Atlanta, Georgia, said: “This question about why do we see reduced eye contact in autism has been around for a long time.

“It’s important for how we understand autism, and it’s important for how we treat autism.”