Autism Spectrum Disorder Essay

Autism is a developmental disorder, which is characterized by a dyad of difficulties in a) communication and social interaction and b) restricted interests and imagination (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Individuals on the Autism Spectrum might find it challenging to understand what other people think or what the reasons for their behaviours are, as their ‘theory of mind’ may not be well developed (Schuwerk, Vuori & Sodian, 2015). It is possible that this is why they might behave in socially inappropriate ways, being unable to differentiate between different contexts, while they might also find it difficult to make friends. Moreover, it is likely that they are fond of routines, repetition and structure (Carnahan, Musti-Rao, & Bailey, 2009), as they might be nervous with unknown, new situations. In addition, some of them might not do eye contact with other people, whereas some others might not endure to be touched and might have a difficulty developing speech (Jordan, 2005). Individuals on the Autism Spectrum might sometimes be prohibited to initiate conversations and might struggle with finding different ways to play and behave, due to the possible deficit of imagination, which in some cases might result in them having a narrow sphere of interests. Nevertheless, it should be noted that this group of people is rather heterogeneous, as characteristics of autism may differ from one individual to another (Gwynette, 2013). Another point is that people with Autism

Both the fusiform gyrus and the inferior temporal gyrus are used in recognizing emotions made by faces. They help figure out what people are thinking just by looking at facial reactions. In people who have autism, these parts of the brain do not function normally so they are often unresponsive to the emotion written on people’s

Autism is a form of neurodevelopment disorder in the autism spectrum disorders. It is characterized by impaired development in social interactions and communication, both verbal and non-verbal. There is an observed lack of spontaneous acts of communication; both receptive and expressed, as well as speech impairments. A person diagnosed with Autism will also show a limited range of activities and interests, as well as forming and maintain peer relationships. The individuals will display limited interests, which are often very focused and repetitive. He or she is likely to be very routine oriented and may show behavioral symptoms such as hyperactivity, impulsivity, aggressiveness, and self-injurious behaviors.

Park, H. R., Lee, J. M., Moon, H. E., Lee, D. S., Kim, B.-N., Kim, J., … Paek, S. H. (2016). A Short Review on the Current Understanding of Autism Spectrum Disorders. Experimental Neurobiology, 25(1), 1–13. http://doi.org/10.5607/en.2016.25.1.1

In addition individuals with autism show deficits in understanding the emotional states of others which is seen in how they imitate and perceive facial expressions. Dapretto et al, (2006) studied MNS by investigating neural-activity during the imitation and observation of emotional facial expressions in high-functioning autistic children and found activity in the anterior component of the MNS was greater in controls then children with ASD. They found that typically developing children rely on right hemisphere mirror neuron mechanisms which is linked to the limbic system where meaning of the observed emotion is understood. Dapretto and colleagues suggested that since individuals with ASD displayed a dysfunction in their MNS they have to use alternate

The most modern evidence comes from neuroimaging. The N170 ERP was instrumental in highlighting brain activation when viewing face stimuli. The activation patterns helped to locate the fusiform face area (FFA) because N170 was so distinct to faces. In this essay the fMRI research into the FFA will be explored in detail. To prove faces are special, the research aimed to find a correlation between distinct face-processing brain activity and a specific brain region. The FFA was discovered in 1997 by Kanwisher. It was first described as a brain region which only responded to faces. In fact, activation was found for cat faces and cartoon faces (Tong et al, 2000). There was also some very low level activation to animals, houses and

Autism, or autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a pervasive neuro-developmental condition which effects a person’s ability to communicate and interact with others. People with autism may have a difficult time understanding ‘typical’ social cues and social behaviors, and they may face challenges engaging with those around them either by using words or non-verbal behaviors and refers to a broad range of conditions characterized by challenges with social skills, repetitive behaviors, speech. As well as by unique strengths and differences. We now know that there is not one autism but many types, caused by a combination of genetic and environmental influences (what is autism,

Provides a focused study of three experiments directly relating to the recognition of standardized facial expressions of emotions as it relates to Autism. The study investigates its findings using six basic emotions, fear, happiness, surprise, anger, disgust and sadness to process its findings against autistics children and normally developing children by using laminated photographed index cards and by asking participant verbally how they felt. In previous studies data revealed that participants with amygdala damage pass basic emotion test, however, they failed to distinguish from emotions such as fear or surprise. In the current study, the children with autism made the same types of errors as the normal develop children with all children having the same difficulty level with the emotions surprise and fear the most difficult on a perpetual

Neurological disorders are complex in nature and often the least understood. Given the recent boom in imaging technology and other diagnostic methods, it is now possible to see more clearly into the scope of neurological development and accurately determine the etiology of these diseases. One of such disorders is Autism; a multifactorial condition impairing normal brain development. It affects many aspects of development, including social behavior, cognitive ability and communication skills1 and is commonly diagnosed in children before the age of three1. The symptoms of this condition can vary greatly between individuals; hence its classification as a spectrum disorder. Asperger syndrome, Rett syndrome and pervasive

While RF meets the criteria for Autism, other children display the same symptoms of ASD, only not as severe, which leads to the diagnosis of Asperger’s Syndrome. Although one feature that differentiates Autism and Asperger’s is communication impairment (Thede & Coolidge, 2007), Kozlowski, Matson, and Sipes (2012) tested the differences between the two disorders with respect to verbal communication impairments. In both Autism and Asperger’s, verbal communication impairments are prevalent, and correlated with challenging behavior, however, in Asperger’s these symptoms are less intense. Children diagnosed with Asperger’s and Autism also share the symptoms of lack of communication, and repetitive behavior; however, they differ in their cognitive ability. Due to these shared traits, Autism and Asperger’s Syndrome are placed under the same disorder (ASD), with differing levels of severity.

Functional resonance imaging (fMRI) is a noninvasive procedure done by researchers and physicians in order to view the image of the brain to identify the structures involved in specific mental functions. According to the changes in the oxygen level of the blood which go on to corresponding to the changes in neural activity, fMRI maps the activities of specific neural regions. fMRI can be used to improve the understanding of language in the brain by studying children in with autism spectrum disorder, and their difficulties in the social aspect of communication. By looking into the linguistic context of integration, a team of scientist from the Netherlands, sought to determine whether there is a neural base for this particular difficulty. With

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may be portrayed toward critical impairments in social interaction. It also includes restricted repeated behaviors, interests and activities. (Mayo Clinic staff, 2014)

Most of the studies presented utilize two methods of research analysis and decoding of different physiological systems of the brain and the results may be congruence. The final study presented will provide a comparison of two different techniques of fMRI and ERP/EEG. The exploration of the systems involved in facial processing are crucial to understanding the mechanisms involved. Which can aid in early diagnosis of certain brain diseases and safety to individuals vulnerable to impairment in facial intention/fearful face processing. It is essential that the systems involved in measuring these neural mediations are accurate and provide valid information. Researchers appear to favor the fMRI method when studying facial processing, which is a common observation in the literature. It was rare to locate a study for facial processing that exclusively involved Electrophysiology methods pertaining to EEG/ERP and many studies contained fMRI methods in

Of the various symptoms associated with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), social deficits are among the most salient. Individuals on the autism spectrum are usually impaired in social skills such as maintaining eye contact or initiating conversations (c.f. Levy, 2007). Although ASD may be comorbid with intellectual disability, some high-functioning individuals with ASD exhibit characteristic social impairments while possessing typical intelligence. However, high-functioning autistic individuals tend to rely more on lower-level neural networks than typical controls do when completing the same cognitive task (Koshino et al., 2004; Liu et al., 2011). Autistic individuals also display lower functional connectivity between anterior and posterior

His outcome of an absenteeism of this left eye inclination in ASD kids is consequently steady with the possibility of an unusual right hemispheric specialization for face handling in ASD, as proposed by EEG considers [49–51].