“Walking is a huge gross motor milestone, and it’s associated with a child’s understanding of his or her own body in relation to the environment,” said first author Natasha Marrus, MD, PhD, an assistant professor of child psychiatry at Washington University. “That the default-mode network is involved is important because that network is thought to be very involved in developing one’s own sense of self. Our findings may allow us to identify the brain regions and networks that can predict aspects of autism before it’s possible to make a clinical diagnosis.”