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| Neuroimaging
of Language and Social Communication in Autism |
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This
project is part of an autism program project that began in 1997. It
is funded by NIDCD, and is part of the Collaborative Programs of Excellence
in Autism. This project’s current funding period extends through
2007.
Project Aims
This project focuses on the problem of detecting neural mechanisms
related to language and social-communication dysfunction in autism
using structural and functional MRI. In our current studies, we found
structural and functional abnormalities in the brains of subjects
with autism, particularly in regions related to language and social-communication.
For example, we found that boys with autism, as well as boys with
SLI, have reversed structural MRI asymmetries in frontal language
cortex (Broca’s area), and in adults with autism, these frontal
language regions also had abnormal fMRI activation asymmetry during
semantic processing tasks. We are now extending this work in the following
ways:
- Assessing white matter development and organization to determine
whether white matter abnormalities in autism may relate to language
performance or autism communication severity.
- Using functional MRI (fMRI) to determine whether brain areas
that typically process language and social communication information
are normally activated during language processing and during response
to presentation of facial social communication stimuli.
Participants in these studies include many of the same children and
adolescents who are enrolled in the other program project studies,
including Language
in Autism and SLI and Face
Processing in Autism. |
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