Study expands knowledge about autism

PITTSBURGH, July 12 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers say they believe they've identified why people suffering from autism think in pictures.

The researchers in the National Institutes of Health-funded study found autism might involve a lack of connections and coordination in separate areas of the brain.

In people with autism, brain areas performing complex analysis appear less likely to work together during problem-solving tasks than in non-afflicted people. The researchers found communications between those brain centers in autistics appear to be directly related to the thickness of the anatomical connections between them.

In a separate study, the same research team found that, in people with autism, brain areas normally associated with visual tasks also appear to be active during language-related tasks, which might explain a bias toward visual thinking common in autism.

"The findings may one day provide the basis for improved treatments for autism that stimulate communication between brain areas," said Dr. Duane Alexander, director of NIH's National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

The research was led by psychology Professor Marcel Just at Carnegie Mellon University and Dr. Nancy Minshew, professor of psychiatry and neurology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.