https://spectrumnews.org/features/special-reports/autism-brain-region-by-region/
Memory hub could underlie social, cognitive quirks of autism
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For most of us, telling a tale from our childhood is a simple, often spontaneous act. For people with autism, however, relating life experiences — whether from years ago or yesterday — can be a tall order.
Autism has an unusual effect on memory: It disrupts the recall of everyday events but often goes with an enhanced ability to hold onto facts. Many people with autism can master enormous amounts of detail about a chosen interest, be it the London transit system or the life of Georgia O’Keeffe.These traits, among others, implicate the brain’s main memory hub, the hippocampus, in the condition. Preliminary studies in animals suggest that disruptions to the hippocampus and its circuits could underlie some of the cognitive difficulties common among people with autism1,2.
Some of these problems, such as trouble remembering social information, may stem from problems with memory per se. But others may relate to memory only indirectly.
“We’re recognizing that the hippocampus is really critical to a lot of the things that are clearly absent in autism — things like being able to flexibly make decisions based on past experiences,” says Loren Frank, professor of physiology at the University of California, San Francisco.
Studies of the hippocampus could one day help to explain features of autism ranging from poor social skills to difficulty switching from one idea to another — an aptitude known as ‘cognitive flexibility,’ Frank says.
This brain region might also lend clues to therapy: People with autism may be able to use some unusual cognitive strengths to compensate for their weaknesses.
Wiring of Autistic Brains Shown To Be Highly Individualized
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As far as general wiring goes, the brains of neurotypical individuals is fairly standardized. This is not the case for those diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Some studies have found that ASD brains have higher connectivity, while conflicting studies have concluded that they have fewer connections. A new study might be able to reconcile those opposing results, as it has found that ASD brains are not only wired differently from neurotypical brains, but have a number of idiosyncrasies when compared to one another as well. This could help explain behaviors at different points on the autism spectrum. Avital Hahamy of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel is lead author of the paper, which was published in Nature Neuroscience.
The study utilized functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans of resting individuals who were either neurotypical or diagnosed with ASD. The researchers drew on five large data sets obtained from the Autism Brain Imaging Data Exchange (ABIDE) database. The scans revealed the relative inter-hemispheric connectivity of different brain regions; that is, connections spanning both halves of the brain.
"Resting-state brain studies are important because that is when patterns emerge spontaneously, allowing us to see how various brain areas naturally connect and synchronize their activity,” Hahamy said in a press release.
The inter-hemispheric connectivity for different regions of neurotypical brains appeared to be standardized. The frontal and temporal cortices, responsible for executive decision making, generally had reduced connectivity. Connectivity across the brain is increased in the occipital and sensorimotor cortices, where the majority of sensory and motor processing occurs. Scan after scan, the neurotypical brains showed uniform patterns in relative connectivity.
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