November 5, 2012

New Study Undermines Leading Autism Theory

Deen & Pelphrey, Nature


AP Photo

One of the most popular and widely accepted theories on the cause of autism spectrum disorders attributes the condition to disrupted connectivity between different regions of the brain. This 'connectivity hypothesis' claims that the social and cognitive abnormalities in people with autism can be explained by a dearth of connections between distant regions of the brain. Some flavours of this theory also predict more connections between nearby brain regions.

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TAGGED: autism, brain circuits, artifact, brain scan, functional MRI

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