A new brain imaging study reveals that autism spectrum disorders may be explained by a decrease in neuronal connectivity between adjacent brain areas and not by an increase. These results relaunch the debate on the origin of autism.
The knowledge on autism is challenged by a new brain imaging study published in the journal Brain Tuesday, November 13. The results are in total opposition with previous studies on this subject, reports Les Echos .
Researchers have so far attempted to explain autism spectrum disorders by a lack of long-distance connections between neurons located throughout the brain. This deficit was associated with an increase in short-range neuronal connectivity between adjacent brain areas.
A better measure of connectivity
"This model is based on low-specific neuroimaging methods that do not reliably measure 'short-distance' connectivity," says Pr Josselin Houenou, a researcher at Inserm and the author of this new study. The researchers used an innovation that gives a more accurate picture of brain connectivity to establish these conclusions.
The results obtained on autistic adults show that the alteration of social interactions and empathy is ultimately correlated with a decrease in connectivity in several short-distance clusters. Researchers now wish to confirm this by conducting new studies on children.