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Subject: BRAINS OF PEOPLE WITH AUTISM RECALL LETTERS OF THE ALPHABET IN
BR AIN AREAS DEALING WITH SHAPES


U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH

NIH News

National Institute of Child Health
and Human Development (NICHD)
http://www.nichd.nih.gov

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, November 29, 2004

CONTACTS:
Robert Bock or
Marianne Glass
301-496-5133

BRAINS OF PEOPLE WITH AUTISM RECALL LETTERS OF THE ALPHABET IN BRAIN
AREAS DEALING WITH SHAPES Finding Supports Theory That Autism Results
From Failure of Brain Areas To Work Together

In contrast to people who do not have autism, people with autism
remember letters of the alphabet in a part of the brain that ordinarily
processes shapes, according to a study from a collaborative program of
the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the
National Institutes of Health.

The study was conducted by researchers in the NICHD Collaborative
Program of

Excellence in Autism (CPEA) at the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie
Mellon University. It supports a theory by CPEA scientists that autism
results from a failure of the various parts of the brain to work
together. In autism, the theory holds, these distinct brain areas tend
to work independently of each other. The theory accounts for
observations that while many people with autism excel at tasks involving
details, they have difficulty with more complex information.

The study and the theory are the work of Marcel Just, Ph.D., Professor
of Psychology at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
and Nancy Minshew, M.D., Professor of Psychiatry and Neurology at the
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and their colleagues.

The study is scheduled for on-line publication November 29 in the
journal "Neuroimage," at <http://www.sciencedirect.com>.

"This finding provides more evidence to support a promising theory of
autism," said Duane Alexander, M.D., Director of the NICHD. "If
confirmed, this theory suggests that therapies emphasizing problem
solving skills and other tasks that activate multiple brain areas at the
same time might benefit people with autism."

People with autism typically have difficulty communicating and
interacting socially with others. The old saying "unable to see the
forest for the trees" applies to people with autism, describing how many
of them excel at matters of detail, yet struggle to comprehend the
larger picture. For example, some children with autism may become
champions at spelling bees, but have difficulty understanding the
meaning of a sentence or a story.

"The language pattern in autism is a microcosm for the disorder," Dr.
Just said. "People with autism are good at a lower level of analysis but
have a deficit at the higher level."

In the current study, the researchers used a brain imaging technique
known as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure the
brain activity of 14 individuals with high functioning autism while they
performed a simple memory task involving letters of the alphabet.
Specifically, the study volunteers were shown a sequence of letters.
After each letter, they were asked to name the letter that preceded it.
In some cases, they were asked to name the letter that appeared two
letters previously. The autism volunteers' brain activation patterns
were compared to a control group of people who did not have autism, but
were of a similar age and I.Q. level.

Both groups successfully completed the task. However, the fMRI scans
revealed different brain activation patterns between the two groups.
Compared to the control group, the volunteers with autism showed more
activation in the right hemisphere, or half, of the brain, and less
activation in the left hemisphere. The left hemisphere takes the lead in
processing letters, words and sentences, whereas the right hemisphere
plays a larger role in processing shapes and visual information.

Dr. Just said that the brain could interpret letters either spatially,
as geometric shapes, or linguistically, by the names of the letters. The
imaging data indicated that the volunteers with autism remembered
letters as shapes,

while the control group remembered them by their names.

The brain activation patterns of the two groups also differed in other
ways.

While performing the task, the group with autism showed less activation
in the anterior, or front, parts of the brain, and more activation in
the posterior, or rear parts of the brain. Dr. Just explained that the
brain's anterior portions carry out higher-level thinking and reasoning
while the posterior portion is

more involved with perceiving details.

Compared to the control group, the different brain areas of the people
with autism were less likely to work in synchrony (at the same time)
while recalling the letters. Such synchronization between brain areas
takes place during many kinds of higher-level thinking and analysis that
prove difficult for many people with autism.

These current findings provide evidence in support of the theory
developed by these researchers. Called the theory of underconnectivity
in autism, it maintains that autism results from a failure of the
brain's neurological wiring
-- the fibers of nervous system tissue that interconnect the individual
parts of the brain. Deprived of effective connections, the different
brain areas must

work independently, sometimes performing at a higher level individually
than

they do in people who do not have autism. This may allow some people
with autism to excel at spelling and other detail-oriented tasks but
make it difficult for them to comprehend more complex material.

The researchers published their theory in the July issue of "Brain," in
conjunction with the results of another fMRI study of volunteers with
autism. In that study, volunteers were asked a question about a simple
sentence that they had just read. When the people with autism performed
the task, their brains showed less synchronization than did the brains
of the control group. Moreover, the brains of the group with autism had
less activation in an anterior part of the brain that integrates the
words of a sentence, and more activation in a posterior brain area that
comprehends individual words.

Many behavioral therapies to treat autism stress rote learning, Dr.
Minshew explained. Such strategies are helpful, particularly early in a
child's development. However, if the theory of underconnectivity proves
valid, therapies that stimulate brain areas to work in synchrony might
also offer some benefit. Such therapies might stress problem solving
skills and creative thinking, and attempt to foster flexibility in
thinking.

Dr. Just noted that more evidence to support the theory might come from
the group's on-going studies of other cognitive abilities. The
researchers are attempting to determine if underconnectivity is a
general feature of the brain in autism, and are using brain imaging
studies to examine the brain's white matter in people with autism. White
matter is the part of the brain that consists of the larger neurological
connections spanning different parts of the brain.

The NICHD is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the
biomedical

research arm of the federal government. NIH is an agency of the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services. The NICHD sponsors research on
development, before and after birth; maternal, child, and family health;
reproductive biology and population issues; and medical rehabilitation.
NICHD publications, as well as information about the Institute, are
available from the NICHD Web site, <http://www.nichd.nih.gov>, or from
the NICHD Information Resource Center,
1-
800-370-2943; e-mail [log in to unmask]

##

This NIH News Release is available online at:
http://www.nih.gov/news/pr/nov2004/nichd-29.htm

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