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Spectrum: Autism Research News

Tag: connectivity theory

February 2014

Scarcity of brain’s immune cells alters mouse behavior

by  /  13 February 2014

A temporary shortage of microglia — immune cells in the brain that prune unnecessary neural connections — in infancy can have long-lasting effects on brain circuits and behavior, according to a study published in Nature Neuroscience on 2 February.

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December 2013

Autism brains are overly connected, studies find

by  /  23 December 2013

Three studies published over the past two months have found significant evidence that children and adolescents with autism have brains that are overly connected compared with the brains of controls. The findings complicate the theory that autism is fundamentally characterized by weakly connected brain regions.

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Understanding contradictory connectivity reports in autism

by ,  /  10 December 2013

Studies at the level of neural circuits are needed to better understand the importance of both increased and decreased connectivity between different regions in the autism brain, say John Rubenstein and Vikaas Sohal.

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Study seeks autism biomarkers in brain-imaging database

by  /  9 December 2013

A large, multisite dataset of brain scans identifies autism with 60 percent accuracy, much lower than the numbers cited by single-site studies. The study, published 25 September in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, highlights the vast differences in equipment, quality and methods across sites.

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November 2013

More or less connected in autism, compared to what?

by  /  19 November 2013

Emerging findings in children with autism are showing both hyperconnectivity and underconnectivity in different regions and circuits throughout the brain.

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October 2013

Elliott Sherr: Coaching teams to tackle autism’s mysteries

by  /  10 October 2013

Elliott Sherr is unraveling the effects of genetics and brain structure in a handful of disparate disorders that each illuminates some aspect of autism.

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August 2013

New technique maps topography of autism brain connections

by  /  8 August 2013

A technique borrowed from geography bolsters the idea that altered wiring in the brain’s gray matter plays a role in autism, according to a report published 22 July in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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July 2013

Autism researchers launch scheme to share brain imaging data

by  /  15 July 2013

A new database that houses brain scans from 17 labs worldwide will allow scientists to study brain connectivity and function in autism. Researchers debuted the new resource’s power in a study published 18 June in Molecular Psychiatry.

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June 2013

What can studying white matter reveal about autism?

by  /  10 June 2013

Advanced imaging techniques may reveal more precise pictures of how of the brain’s regions communicate with one another. How much of the neurodevelopmental riddle of autism lies in these tracts?

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New imaging techniques probe brain’s long-range connections

by  /  10 June 2013

New techniques to scan the brain can produce exquisitely detailed views of white matter, which contains the long cellular fibers that connect neurons. Many of the advances are emerging from the Human Connectome Project, a five-year push to map the brain’s wiring.

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