Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) sometimes have difficulties learning categories. Past computational work suggests that such deficits may result from atypical representations in cortical maps. Here we use neural networks to show that idiosyncratic transformations of inputs can result in the formation of feature maps that impair…

In this study, we investigated neural precursors of language acquisition as potential endophenotypes of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in 3-month-old infants at high and low familial ASD risk. Infants were imaged using functional near-infrared spectroscopy while they listened to auditory stimuli containing syllable repetitions; their neural…

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and their relatives process faces differently from typically developed (TD) individuals. In an fMRI face-viewing task, TD and undiagnosed sibling (SIB) children (5-18 years) showed face specialization in the right amygdala and ventromedial prefrontal cortex, with left fusiform and right amygdala face…

Alpha circuits (8-12 Hz), necessary for basic and complex brain processes, are abnormal in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The present study obtained estimates of resting-state (RS) alpha activity in children with ASD and examined associations between alpha activity, age, and clinical symptoms. Given that the thalamus modulates cortical RS alpha…

The duplication of the Williams-Beuren syndrome (WBS) region (7q11.23) is a copy number variant associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). One of the most intriguing aspects is that the reciprocal microdeletion causes WBS, characterized by hypersociability, marked empathy, and a relative capacity in verbal short-term memory and language.…

This fMRI study investigated neural responses while making appraisals of self and other, across the social and academic domains, in children and adolescents with and without autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Compared to neurotypical youth, those with ASD exhibited hypoactivation of ventromedial prefrontal cortex during self-appraisals. Responses in…

Amino acids related to neurotransmitters and the GABAergic/glutamatergic system were measured using a 3 T-MRI instrument in 12 patients with autism and 10 normal controls. All measurements were performed in the frontal lobe (FL) and lenticular nuclei (LN) using a conventional sequence for n-acetyl aspartate (NAA) and glutamate (Glu), and the…

Three levels of investigation underlie all biologically based attempts at classification of behaviorally defined developmental and psychiatric disorders: Level A, pseudo-categorical classification of mostly dimensional descriptions of behaviors and their disorders included in the 2013 American Psychiatric Association's Fifth Edition of the…

We have shown altered expression of gamma-aminobutyric acid A (GABA[subscript A]) and gamma-aminobutyric acid B (GABA[subscript B]) receptors in the brains of subjects with autism. In the current study, we sought to verify our western blotting data for GABBR1 via qRT-PCR and to expand our previous work to measure mRNA and protein levels of 3…

Williams Syndrome (WS) is described as displaying a dissociation within memory systems. As the integrity of hippocampal formation (HF) is determinant for memory performance, we examined HF volumes and its association with memory measures in a group of WS and in a typically development group. A significantly reduced intracranial content was found…

Gamma-aminobutyric acid A (GABA[subscript A]) receptors are ligand-gated ion channels responsible for mediation of fast inhibitory action of GABA in the brain. Preliminary reports have demonstrated altered expression of GABA receptors in the brains of subjects with autism suggesting GABA/glutamate system dysregulation. We investigated the…

The corpus callosum has recently been considered as an index of interhemispheric connectivity. This study applied a novel volumetric method to examine the size of the corpus callosum in 32 individuals with autism and 34 age-, gender- and IQ-matched controls and to investigate the relationship between this structure and cognitive measures linked to…

Minicolumnar changes that generalize throughout a significant portion of the cortex have macroscopic structural correlates that may be visualized with modern structural neuroimaging techniques. In magnetic resonance images (MRIs) of fourteen autistic patients and 28 controls, the present study found macroscopic morphological correlates to recent…

A study used positron emission tomography (PET) to study patterns of brain activation during auditory processing in five high-functioning adults with autism. Results found that participants showed reversed hemispheric dominance during the verbal auditory stimulation and reduced activation of the auditory cortex and cerebellum. (CR)