FUNCTIONAL AND CONNECTIVITY NEUROIMAGING OF AUTISM

这个子项目是众多研究子项目之一

This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. There are two main goals of this research. 1.) Develop new methods that will allow us to explore the brain regions that are critical for processing sounds and language. We now can use novel technologies, especially magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to investigate the brains of living people. We will first use these tools to map out the areas of the brain that process sounds and language in control subjects to develop the methods and analysis that will allow us to see where in the brain these processes take place and how these areas are connected to one another. 2.) Apply these new tools and methods to investigate the same questions in adolescents with autism. We know that language deficits are among the core features of autism and may be found in the majority of children and adults with autism, yet we still know little about the brain pathology that may underlie these impairments. This research will shed light on which regions of the brain may not be processing either sounds or language in an efficient way, and where connections between critical brain regions may break down in autism.