ASD & Brain Differences compared to NT individuals

Question 1

What are anatomical differences in the “Autistic brain”?

Answer 1

• Larger brain in young child with Autism
• Frontal lobe especially larger, can cause other areas to be smaller (not due to swelling)
• 7% less volume than NT brain

Question 2

What are the neurochemical differences?

Answer 2

-elevated levels of dopamine and serotonin (checked through blood work), can effect mood, arousal level, pain sensitivity, body temperature, selective attention

Question 3

Describe the Interconnectivity Theory

Answer 3

Study on Corpus Collosum:
less efficient communication between hemispheres
-narrow synaptic activity, does not reach frontal lobe/outer cortex (higher functioning skills)
“Broken Bridge”
-planning/problem-solving difficulties
-neurobehavioral differences
-problems planning, problem solving, lengthy sentences

Question 4

Tools to help those with Information Processing issues

Answer 4

• break it down into smaller steps
• write down directions
• let them repeat back instructions
• visualization

Question 5

Expressive Language Deficit

Answer 5

Broca’s: understands but harder time expressing

Question 6

Social Information Processing

Answer 6

-same physiological response whether you are excited or mad
-Parts of Brain Active during social interaction:
Amygdala- regulating emotion
Frontal cortices- planning/execution (planning before acting)
Parietal lobe- processing sensory (tactile, etc.)

Question 7

Central Coherence

Answer 7

• core deficit in this population
• trouble getting the “whole picture”
• will see pieces in a picture but not the relevance of the whole scene
  ex: man taking a nap vs medical emergency

Question 8

Working Memory and Learning

Answer 8

Learning is a step-by-step process

• WM used to process/store lengthy and complex information
• difficulty staying on task
• ASD Level 3 categorized as ID