Also Included In: Epilepsy; Schizophrenia
Article Date: 21 Sep 2012 - 0:00 PDT
Current ratings for:
Unreliable Neural Responses May Induce Autism Symptoms
| Patient / Public: |  | |
| Healthcare Prof: | |
Diverse symptoms associated with autism could be explained by unreliable activity of neurons in the brain in response to basic, nonsocial sensory information, according to a study published by Cell Press in the journal Neuron. The new findings suggest that autism is a disorder of general neural processing and could potentially provide an explanation for the origins of a range of psychiatric and neurological disorders.
"Within the autism research community, most researchers are looking for either a dysfunctional brain region or inadequate connections between brain regions," says lead study author Ilan Dinstein of Carnegie Mellon University. "We're taking a different approach and thinking about how a general characteristic of the brain could be different in autism - and how that might lead to behavioral changes."
Autism is a developmental disorder marked by social deficits, communication problems, and repetitive behaviors. Two previous studies suggested that the neural responses of individuals with autism are more variable than those of control subjects during visual and motor tasks. Building on this past evidence, Dinstein and his collaborators have now shown that multiple sensory systems within these individuals show noisy responses, suggesting that widespread behavioral abnormalities could arise from a basic dysfunction in neural processing that emerges during development.
In the study, adults with autism participated in functional magnetic resonance imaging experiments in which their brain activity was measured under three different conditions: while they watched moving dots on a screen, listened to tone beeps, and felt air puffs on their hands. The neural responses to all three types of sensory information were less reliable across trials in individuals with autism than in control subjects.
The findings suggest that autism could result from fundamental defects in general neural processing rather than a collection of independent problems that affect different brain regions. "Unreliable neural activity is a general property that could have a profound impact on the function of many brain systems and could underlie a range of cognitive and social abnormalities," says study author Marlene Behrmann of Carnegie Mellon University. "So we think that this problem could play a role not only in autism, but also potentially in other disorders such as epilepsy and schizophrenia."
Visit our autism section for the latest news on this subject.
Video: Marlene Behrmann, Professor of Psychology, and IIan Dinstein, Postdoctoral Researcher, from Carnegie Mellon University's Department of Psychology discuss their study "Autistic Adults have Unreliable Neural Sensory Responses" publishing in Neuron.
Cell Press
MLA
n.p. "Unreliable Neural Responses May Induce Autism Symptoms." Medical News Today. MediLexicon, Intl., 21 Sep. 2012. Web.
21 Sep. 2012. <http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/250462.php>
APA
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/250462.php.
Please note: If no author information is provided, the source is cited instead.
'Unreliable Neural Responses May Induce Autism Symptoms'
Please note that we publish your name, but we do not publish your email address. It is only used to let you know when your message is published. We do not use it for any other purpose. Please see our privacy policy for more information.
If you write about specific medications or operations, please do not name health care professionals by name.
All opinions are moderated before being included (to stop spam)
Contact Our News Editors
For any corrections of factual information, or to contact the editors please use our feedback form.
Please send any medical news or health news press releases to:
Note: Any medical information published on this website is not intended as a substitute for informed medical advice and you should not take any action before consulting with a health care professional. For more information, please read our terms and conditions.
Source: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/250462.php
Read More Here Discover More Here Learn More Here Click This Link
No comments:
Post a Comment