Study: People with Autism Show Atypical Brain Activity When Coordinating Visual and Motor Information

A new study in the Journal of Neurophysiology by researchers at the University of Kansas Life Span Institute is the first to look at functional brain activity in people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) while they performed precision visuomotor behavior-in this case, a grip-force test. The authors found new evidence sensorimotor changes in people with autism involve abnormal cortical and subcortical organization "that may contribute to key clinical issues in patients." People with autism performed a precision grip-force test while being scanned inside an MRI machine. They watched a display containing two horizontal bars set against a black background. The subjects controlled the bars in specific ways by pressing a device in their right hand. So did a control group of people without ASD. Read More