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Brain differences found between Asperger's and autism

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jmyrlefuller:
http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/08/05/asperger-and-autism-brain-differences-found/?intcmp=obnetwork

by Bahar Gholipour
August 5, 2013

Children with Asperger's syndrome show patterns of brain connectivity distinct from those of children with autism, according to a new study. The findings suggest the two conditions, which are now in one category in the new psychiatry diagnostic manual, may be biologically different.

The researchers used electroencephalography (EEG) recordings to measure the amount of signaling occurring between brain areas in children. They had previously used this measure of brain connectivity to develop a test that could distinguish between children with autism and normally developing children.

"We looked at a group of 26 children with Asperger's, to see whether measures of brain connectivity would indicate they're part of autism group, or they stood separately," said study researcher Dr. Frank Duffy, a neurologist at Boston's Children Hospital. The study also included more than 400 children with autism, and about 550 normally developing children, who served as controls.

At first, the test showed that children with Asperger's and those with autism were similar: both showed weaker connections, compared with normal children, in a region of the brain's left hemisphere called the arcuate fasciculus, which is involved in language.

However, when looking at connectivity between other parts of the brain, the researchers saw differences. Connections between several regions in the left hemisphere were stronger in children with Asperger's than in both children with autism and normally developing children.

The results suggest the conditions are related, but there are physiological differences in brain connectivity that distinguish children with Asperger's from those with autism, according to the study published July 31 in the journal BMC Medicine.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/08/05/asperger-and-autism-brain-differences-found/?intcmp=obnetwork#ixzz2bC1m0ZW0

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