## 5 Discussion
Adopting a dimensional rather than a categorical perspective in the study of ASD, where various dimensions of development are examined in their phenotypic expression rather than searching for singular markers, could lead to a more comprehensive understanding of clinical heterogeneity and the development of personalized intervention programs. The investigation of joint attention aligns with this approach, as it serves as a critical milestone for the subsequent development of language and various other social skills in both neurotypical and neurodivergent populations [10; 13; 61]. Understanding the early precursors of joint attention is essential for identifying developmental risk factors and for implementing timely interventions through the development of tailored treatments. Our findings, which highlighted the association between disengagement and joint attention in both low- and high-risk groups of children, if replicated in larger samples, may enhance our understanding of joint attention development, thereby improving early treatment targets. For instance, [PERSON] and colleagues [62] provide evidence that attentional control can be enhanced through structured interventions, emphasizing techniques that engage infants in tasks requiring focus and sustained attention. These findings suggest that early training can lead to improvements in attentional abilities, such as reduced disengagement latencies, which may have cascading effects on later cognitive and social development. Despite the low number of infants in our study who received a diagnosis of ASD (n = 10), and thus our results should be interpreted with extreme caution, our study also suggested that a slower disengagement of visual attention and reduced frequency of JA abilities at 12 months is associated with an ASD diagnosis at 24 months. The importance of assessing JA and DA for an early identification of ASD is in line with previous studies that prospectively followed up IL infants from the first year of life until the age of their diagnosis [18; 36; 37; 63; 64; 65; 66; 67; 68]. Different associations between disengagement latency and alternating gaze frequencies might help to better predict different clinical phenotypes. This possibility has already been explored by [PERSON] et al. [69], who found that the coexistence of a slower disengagement of attention together with a difficulty in responding to JA might have additive and cumulative effects on the risk of developing ASD. Further studies, with larger samples and with different ASD phenotypic expressions, need to be implemented to examine this hypothesis. Additionally, we found a correlation between slower disengagement latency and lower cognitive level, which is also consistent with previous literature [70; 71], including studies documenting a link between attentional disengagement and neurocognitive outcome in various populations such as children with perinatal brain injury and preterm birth [72; 73]. Such association between disengagement and cognitive development across different populations poses the question about the specificity of this marker in autism. Even though in this study slower disengagement correlates with ASD symptom severity as well as cognitive functioning, it remains unclear whether this early marker is specific to ASD or if it is more predictive of a lower cognitive level in general, which, in turn, might affect the results of tests measuring ASD symptoms [74]. Further research is needed to address this issue. Taking together, our findings, if replicated, might point to the potential utility of assessing the disengagement of attention and JA skills during infancy in order to detect infants at risk for neurodevelopmental conditions and to develop tailored interventions [71; 75]. In addition, multimodal assessments, such as the integration of electroencephalogram (EEG) and eye-tracking data [76; 77], may help elucidate neural mechanisms underlying early neurocognitive markers in ASD.