A lack of mirror brain circuits may indicate autism
30 March 2005
by Richard
Conan-Davies
|
A lack of mirror brain cell circuits in the human brain may be a good indicator of autism according to EEG ( brain wave detection) research led by neuroscientists at the University of California in San Diego. Lindsay Oberman who was one of the lead authors of the study told ClearlyExplained.Com News that " We hope that eventually our technique may have the potential to be used as an early marker for autism or asperger's syndrome, but more research will have to be done before we will know." In their research they measured the brain wave patterns of 10 males with autism or asperger's syndrome compared with 10 normal males when watching or moving objects and discovered that a brain wave pattern normally suppressed ( which is what these mirror brain circuits do) was showing up in the autistic brains. This suggests that these circuits just 'do their own thing'. This is similar to autistic minds that tend have trouble with social communications and types of reciprocal understandings. This research may provide a way for using biofeedback as a kind of therapy for dealing with autism. Their work is to be reported in the journal Cognitive Brain Research . |
Neuronal networks brain cells likes these can mirror inputs but in autistic people these sometimes don't work very well in their brains. |
Related Links
Original news release from University of California, San Diego
Nature &
Science News
ClearlyExplained.com