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Weak connections in the brain explain autism

People with ADS do not respond to faces in the usual way

The difficulties that autistic people have in relationships with others can be caused by poor communication between areas of the brain. This may explain why they do not bond well, because these weak connections in the brain mean that they will not benefit from social situations. Until now, the explanation was that the lack of social skills stems from an anomaly in specific areas of the brain.

The BBC reports that a neuroimaging study carried out at the University of London compared the brain scans of 32 people. The areas of the brain associated with processing facial images are not well connected to the areas of the brain responsible for attention.
The researchers examined brain scans of 16 people who suffer from autism spectrum disorders (ASD) but have an IQ above average, as well as 16 healthy volunteers. They showed each subject four pictures on the screen - two pictures of houses and two pictures of faces. They were then asked to concentrate on each of the faces or houses and decide if they were the same. The scans indicated different brain activities between the two groups.
The people in the control group showed significant brain activity when they focused on the faces. However, for ASD patients, looking at faces had no effect on the brain at all, which explains their little interest in faces. In contrast, both groups showed the same reaction regarding the pictures of the houses.
Dr. Jeff Breed, from the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of London who headed the group of researchers said: "The accepted assumption regarding the social problems of autistic people was that they have a problem in the area of ​​the brain that recognizes faces. Our research suggests that this is not the real problem - it seems that allocating attention to faces does not lead to the normal increase in brain activity. This is because the face recognition area of ​​the brain is not well connected to the parts of the brain that control attention - such as the frontal area and the parietal area.
According to him, the scientists now know that many autistic people have specific problems in this area and that the new research gives hope for improving the understanding of these processes and ultimately making it possible to provide these people with useful support.


For news at the BBC

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