What have we found? Where are we going? Elizabeth Redcay, Ph.D. BrainTrust Autism Lecture November 12, 2009

 Overview of Current Directions  Highlight Two of Current Directions  Future Directions

1. Autism is heterogeneous 2. Autism is a systems disorder 3. Autistic individuals show enhanced perceptual processing 4. Autism is a developmental disorder 5. ‘Can vs. do’: Autistic individuals can do more than they do do

I. Overview of Current Directions Belmonte et al., 2004 Autism Control

 Emphasis on deficits in social and language domains  Enhanced perceptual processing I. Overview of Current Directions

 Autism emerges early  Majority of brain studies conducted on adults I. Overview of Current Directions

II. Highlight: Developmental Disorder

Slide courtesy of Cindy Schumann II. Highlight: Developmental Disorder

Schumann et al., 2004 II. Highlight: Developmental Disorder

 The typical child undergoes protracted brain growth  Brain growth in autism is too fast too early II. Highlight: Developmental Disorder

 Real-world impairments in social interaction  Implicit (passive) studies reveal differences in ‘social brain’ areas  Explicit studies often do not  Salient in social domains: face perception, self-reflection, irony comprehension, theory of mind I. Overview of Current Directions

 Fus II. Highlight: Can vs Do > = Fusiform Face Area Control ASD Pierce et al., 2001

 Fus II. Highlight: Can vs Do > = Fusiform Face Area Control ASD Pierce et al., 2004

II. Highlight: Can vs Do

CON ASD II. Highlight: Can vs Do Neutral Instructions Explicit Instructions CON ASD

II. Highlight: Can vs Do Senju et al., 2009

EXPLICIT  Where will Sally look?  Asp and Con give correct answer (where she thinks it is) IMPLICIT  Spontaneous looking differs II. Highlight: Can vs Do Senju et al., 2009

 Engaging in social cognition is automatic for typical individuals  This spontaneous engagement is widely absent in ASD  Explicit social cognition can be elicited  In some cases the appropriate brain regions supporting these functions are recruited  Critical in understanding and designing future studies of ASD II. Highlight: Developmental Disorder

 Overview of Current Directions  Highlight Two of Current Directions  Autism is a developmental disorder  Can vs. Do  Future Directions ✓ ✓

 Early ages and developmental change  Connectivity between regions  More naturalistic experiments  Links between genes, brain, and behavior III. Future Directions

 Behaviorally  Severely mentally retarded to exceptionally bright  Genetically  Highly heritable  Polygenic disorder  Neurologically  Between-subject differences large I. Overview of Current Directions