One woman, who had her vision restored at the age of 12 by a cataract operation, performed almost normally on vision tests at the age of 32.

US experts say their studies show the brain is malleable in older children - which was doubted previously - and that the risks of surgery can be worth it.

And they have launched an initiative to treat blind children living in India.

The new data, from 14 states, do not mean that autism is on the rise, because the criteria and definitions used were not the same as those used in the past.

Instead, they may do good because they're acutely tuned into the needs and actions of others.

Scientists say a piece of the brain linked to perceiving others' intentions shows more activity in unselfish vs. selfish types.
"Perhaps altruism did not grow out of a warm-glow feeling of doing good for others, but out of the simple recognition that that thing over there is a person that has intentions and goals. And therefore, I might want to treat them like I might want them to treat myself," explained study author Scott Huettel, an associate professor of psychology at Duke University Medical Center, in Durham, N.C.