First Neuroimaging Study Examining Motor Execution in Children With Autism Reveals Brain Activation Differences, Decreased Connectivity Between Brain Regions

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First Neuroimaging Study Examining Motor Execution in Children With Autism

Reveals Brain Activation Differences, Decreased Connectivity Between Brain

Regions

 

Researchers Uncover New Insight into the Neurological Basis of Autism by

Studying How the Brain Coordinates Movement

 

April 28, 2009

Source: Kennedy Krieger Institute

 

In the first neuroimaging study to examine motor execution in children with

autism, researchers at the Kennedy Krieger Institute have uncovered important

new insight into the neurological basis of autism. The study, published online

in the journal Brain’s April 23 Brain Advanced Access, compared the brain

activity of children with high functioning autism and their typically developing

peers while performing a simple motor task—tapping their fingers in sequence.

The researchers found that children with autism relied more heavily on a region

of the brain responsible for conscious, effortful movement, while their

typically developing peers utilized a region of the brain important for

automating motor tasks. Children with autism also showed less connectivity

between different regions of the brain involved in coordinating and executing

movement, supporting the theory that a decreased ability of distant regions of

the brain to communicate with each other

forms the neurological basis of autism.

Researchers used fMRI scans to examine the brain activity of 13 children with

high functioning autism and 13 typically developing children while performing

sequential finger tapping. The typically developing children had increased

activity in the cerebellum, a region of the brain important for automating motor

tasks, while children with autism had increased activity in the supplementary

motor area (SMA), a region of the brain important for conscious movement. This

suggests children with autism have to recruit and rely on more conscious,

effortful motor planning because they are not able to rely on the cerebellum to

automate tasks.

Researchers also examined the functional connectivity of the brain regions

involved in motor planning and execution in order to compare the activity

between different brain regions involved in the same task. The children with

autism showed substantially decreased connectivity between the different brain

regions involved in motor planning and execution. These results add to

increasing evidence that autism is related to abnormalities in structural and

functional brain connectivity, which makes it difficult for distant regions of

the brain to learn skills and coordinate activities.

“Tapping your fingers is a simple action, but it involves communication and

coordination between several regions of the brain,†said Dr. H.

Mostofsky, senior study author and a pediatric neurologist in the Department of

Developmental Cognitive Neurology at the Kennedy Krieger Institute. “These

results suggest that in children with autism, fairly close regions of the brains

involved in motor tasks have difficulty coordinating activity. If decreased

connectivity is at the heart of autism, it makes sense social and communication

skills are greatly impaired, as they involve even more complex coordination

between more distant areas of the brain.â€

While autism is characterized by impaired communication and social skills, these

abilities are hard for scientists to measure and quantify. In contrast, the

neurological processes behind motor skills are well understood, and motor tasks

can be objectively observed and measured. Examining motor execution provides

researchers a way to study the basic brain systems important for learning and

guiding actions, which has important implications for all learned behavior,

including complex communication and social skills. Researchers at the Kennedy

Krieger Institute have been using the study of motor skills as an important

window into the neurobiological basis of autism.

“When we learn to interact with the world around us, we acquire many

skills,†said Dr. Mostofsky. “Whether they are complex social skills or

simple motor skills, they all begin with the brain responding to a stimulus and

learning the appropriate response. In this way, studying motor skills provides

important information about how the brain of a child with autism learns

differently, and how autism affects the basic neural systems important for

acquiring all skills, from tapping your toes in rhythm to recognizing emotions

in the facial expressions of others.â€

 

Love, Gabby. :0)

http://stemcellforautism.blogspot.com/

 

" I know of nobody who is purely Autistic or purely neurotypical. Even God had

some Autistic moments, which is why the planets all spin. " ~ Jerry Newport