Patients with autism frequently have difficulties relating to other people and researchers at the University of Washington’s (UW’s) Autism Center think the troubling sociability issues may be a direct result of faulty wiring in the brain.  The findings from a recent study undertaken at the center indicate that the more the brain patterns were impaired, the more problems the patient had socializing with other people.

The research team, led by Elizabeth Aylward, a professor of radiology at UW, was concerned specifically with the function of the fusiform face area, a region of the brain that processes face recognition.  To test their hypothesis, the team used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to compare brain activity in this region.  The brain activity of a group of 19 autistic adults was compared to that of a group of 21 non-autistic individuals.  The autistic study participants were high-functioning, with an IQ of 85 or higher, and they were between the ages of 18 and 44.  The control group, without autism, was of the same age and IQ level.

While an fMRI scan was in progress, each study participant viewed 12 pictures of faces and 12 pictures of houses, in view for three seconds each.  In the event the same face or house was shown more than once during the test, the participant was asked to press a button to identify it.

Performance between the two groups was found to be quite similar but the brain activity detected by the fMRI revealed was remarkably different.  Participants in the control group exhibited a great degree of activity in the fusiform face area of the brain but the autistic group exhibited much less activity here.  The more severely an autistic participant was affected by his or her disorder, the lower the level of activity in this part of the brain, a finding that suggests impaired activity in this part of the brain may manifest itself as impaired interpersonal skills and relationships in a degree that correlates to the brain’s activity.

Full details of the UW study have been published in Brain, the medical journal.  The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development provided support for the study, as did the National Institute of Mental Health.

Source: University of Washington