Brain Activity Explains Keen Visual Skills in Autism, Group Claims

Individuals with autism use more brainpower in regions linked to visual perception, and less in those related to planning thoughts and actions, compared with healthy controls, according to a multi-study analysis published today in Human Brain Mapping.The report is getting mixed reviews from other experts, however, who say it presents an oversimplified interpretation of the data. Some also take issue with how the researchers chose which studies to include in their analysis.The analysis is based on data from 26 functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies from many independent laboratories over the past 15 years.Autism is often defined as a social disorder. Instead, "we may define autism as a condition characterized by a brain reorganization in favor of perceptual experience," says lead investigator Laurent Mottron, professor of psychiatry at the University of Montreal.Read the rest at...SFARI, April 2011.