Autistic Brains Out of Synch?

AUTISM; DEVELOPMENTAL disabilities; CEREBRAL cortex; FRONTAL lobe; MEDICAL radiography; BRAIN diseases; POSITRON emission tomography

This article presents information on austism, a disorder that has long mystified parents, doctors, and scientists alike because of the diverse deficits, and occasional talents. Autistic individuals may memorize facts easily but find complex concepts elusive. Researchers have struggled to find an overarching conception of the disorder. And in the past 3 years, they have accumulated tantalizing data suggesting that the problems in autism result from poor connections in the brain areas rather than from defects in a specific brain region. In the autistic brain, the theory went, the brain's frontal lobes, which play a central role in organizing, planning, directing attention, and guiding behavior are not communicating properly with the more detail-oriented areas at the back of the brain. The researchers used positron emission tomography to scan the brains of 10 high-functioning autistic people and 10 controls while they tried to interpret the actions of two triangles on a computer screen. Under different conditions, the triangles moved randomly, interacted in straightforward ways such as dancing or chasing, or appeared to use mental strategies such as coaxing or tricking that autistic people typically do not recognize.