Autism is on the rise and it is important that both professionals and parents learn more about possible causal factors and co-occurring issues with this difficult diagnosis that we are faced with. It is only when we learn more that we can better our treatment methodology to increase the therapeutic effects of intervention. Generally, Autism is considered a neurodevelopmental disorder, which is impairment in the development of the brain and/or central nervous system. ASD is known to impair social, communication, and behavioral skills. Symptomatic behaviors include repetitive physical/verbal behaviors and social awkwardness.
Recent publications are gearing their focus to the differences in brain functioning of the typical child and the individual with Autism. On a positive note, some accounts, describe individuals in the spectrum to have typical or enhanced basic attention, sensory perception, simple memory and visuospatial processing. Unfortunately, complex sensory, motor, memory, and language skills are impaired. It has been found that the higher functioning more integrative skills are the ones that are affected in these individuals.
Research has found that there may be more than just a vast disturbance in information processing in the brain. A new theory on Autism points to difficulty in neuronal organization of the brain. Neural organization involves the layers of neurons in the brain and their placement and connections among other neurons. Communication between the neurons is the hypothesized impairment, and thus the term Disconnection Syndrome in recent literature. The disconnection syndrome is attributes the deficit in the connections of the neurons to the disconnections seen in manifested language, social, and learning deficits.
For more information on the disconnection theory read the full article on asha.org.
How the Brain Thinks in Autism: Implications for Language Intervention. ASHA Leader April 27, 2010.
Research Finding
A study of Adults with ASD was proctored using an fMRI of sentence-reading comprehension. An fMRI is what is known as a functional magnetic resonance imaging. It is a brain scan that measures the neural activity in the brain and spinal cord. The participant was asked read an excerpt and then questioned about the content. Participants were found to be using their left-brain for language processing. It was also found that there was more activity being produced in Wernicke’s area than in Broca’s area. Wernicke’s area is located in between the temporal and parietal lobe in the left hemisphere, and is known to be in charge of receptive processing. Broca’s area is located in the frontal lobe and manages expressive functioning. The fMRI study has shown that there is a lack of coordination between Broca and Wernicke’s area and therefore furthers this idea of disconnection syndrome.
