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

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

3. 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

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

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

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

7. II. Highlight: Developmental Disorder

8. Slide courtesy of Cindy Schumann II. Highlight: Developmental Disorder

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

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

11.  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

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

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

14. II. Highlight: Can vs Do

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

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

17. 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

18.  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

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

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

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