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SDSU scientists find that in children with autism, dầu xoa bóp massage sensorimotor regions of the brain become overconnected at the expense of later-developing higher-order functions

In early childhood, the neurons inside children's developing brains form connections between various regions of brain "real estate." As described in a paper published recently in the journal Biological Psychiatry, cognitive neuroscientists at San Diego State University found that in children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder, the connections between the cerebral cortex and the cerebellum appear to be overdeveloped in sensorimotor regions of the brain. This overdevelopment appears to muscle in on brain "real estate" that in typically developing children is more densely occupied by connections that serve higher cognitive functioning.

The study represents the first ever systematic look at connections between the entire cerebral cortex and the cerebellum using fMRI brain imaging, and its findings provide another piece in the puzzle that could one day lead researchers to develop a reliable brain-based test for identifying autism.

Back to the cerebellum

Several decades ago, scientists reported findings that certain regions of the cerebellum -- a brain region involved in motor control, but also in cognitive, social, and emotional functions -- were often smaller in people with autism than in typically developing people.

That sparked a brief flurry of research activity exploring the cerebellum's potential role in the disorder. Unfortunately, the direction never truly panned out for researchers hoping for a big breakthrough in understanding, said the study's corresponding author, SDSU psychologist Ralph-Axel Müller.

"Eventually, interest in the cerebellum waned due to a lack of consistency in the findings," he said.

Hoping that advances in brain imaging technology would reveal new insights, Müller, working with the study's first author Amanda Khan, dau xoa bop the thao looked back to the cerebellum for their study. Khan is a former master's student at SDSU and now a doctoral candidate at Suffolk University in Boston.

Over- and underconnected

The researchers directed 56 children and adolescents, half with autism and half without the disorder,