Background: The 'broken mirror' theory of autism, which proposes that a dysfunction of the human
The mirror neuron system has been argued to be a key brain system responsible for understanding the actions of others and for imitation. It has therefore been proposed that problems within this system could explain the social difficulties experienced by people with autism spectrum condition.
“One common fawning tactic among Autistics is mirroring: lightly mimicking the actions and emotions of another person, trying to meet the energy they are giving off so that they view us as normal and similar to themselves.”
Individuals with autism have difficulties in social learning domains which typically involve mirror neuron system (MNS) activation.
They found that although the autistic children did not differ from the younger, typically developing children in the amount of time spent looking at their own faces, but that they did spend a lot more time looking at objects in the mirror, and that their behavior toward their reflections differed from that of either ...
Why do many kids with autism . . . Stare into space. Shelley: Some children don't realize they are staring – but may be “tuning out” what is overwhelming them or daydreaming about preferred interests. If the behavior is concerning, parents should consult with their pediatrician.
Myth 1 – autistic people cannot make eye contact
This is well known but factually inaccurate. Whilst many autistic people struggle to make eye contact, some are able to, so don't assume someone who identifies as being autistic won't be able to meet your gaze.
In the autistic brain, the brain reduced connectivity, known as hypoconnectivity, allows weakly connected regions to drift apart, with sulci forming between them.” Research has shown the deeper theses sulcal pits are, the more language production is affected.
Main findings. The study identified 194 significantly different genes in the brains of people with autism. Of those genes, 143 produced more mRNA (upregulated) and 51 produced less (downregulated) in autistic brains than in typical ones. The downregulated genes were mainly linked to brain connectivity.
By contrast, the brains of some people with autism start to shrink prematurely, before their mid-20s. Some children who are later diagnosed with autism also have excess cerebrospinal fluid — the liquid that surrounds the brain — compared with their non-autistic peers, which may contribute to having an enlarged head.
Background: The 'broken mirror' theory of autism, which proposes that a dysfunction of the human mirror neuron system (MNS) is responsible for the core social and cognitive deficits in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), has received considerable attention despite weak empirical evidence.
Summary. While many people with autism may appear to lack empathy and sympathy, it is not the case for all people with autism. For those who struggle with displaying appropriate empathetic responses, the reasons may relate more to social communication issues than a lack of underlying emotional response.
Sometimes, people with autism have a harder time regulating their emotions. They may rely on unique self-soothing strategies to deal with intense emotions, and either seek out or avoid sensory stimuli like bright lights, loud sounds and intense smells.
Several existing models attempt to explain atypical eye contact in ASD [14]. The hyperarousal/gaze aversion model suggests that looking at the eyes of others is aversive, and that people with ASD avoid eye contact and faces to prevent negative affective arousal [14, 17–19].
Autistic people take the opposite approach with bottom-up thinking and use details to build concepts. It may take longer to filter out sensory details with this approach, but you're less likely to miss important information.
Therefore, it appears that while some individuals may be aware they are autistic, others may not fully understand why they have difficulties connecting with people socially or engaging in conversation - yet still realize they are 'different. '
For people on the autism spectrum, the world is a bewildering place. With oversensitive sensory systems, they battle to process the maelstrom of information flowing into their brains. Often the result is sensory overload, leading to signature behaviours such as tantrums, anxiety and social withdrawal.
Early brain changes and autism spectrum disorder
Research is suggesting that, in future, brain scans may be used to diagnose autism, possibly even before behavioral symptoms become apparent.
Based on the operationalisation of a previous study, we examined 'slower', 'average', and 'faster' agers (Belsky et al. 2017). More than twice as many people in the high autistic trait group (31.6%) were faster agers, compared to 13.3% of the low trait group (see Supplementary Material, Supplementary Figure 1).
Four social brain regions, the amygdala, OFC, TPC, and insula, are disrupted in ASD and supporting evidence is summarized; these constitute the proposed common pathogenic mechanism of ASD. Symptomatology is then addressed: widespread ASD symptoms can be explained as direct effects of disrupted social brain regions.
Autistic brains develop more slowly than healthy brains, UCLA researchers say. Researchers at UCLA have found a possible explanation for why autistic children act and think differently than their peers.
Autistic people often prefer to view inanimate objects over people interacting. This atypical gaze pattern may help clinicians flag autism before other traits appear. The average age of diagnosis in the United States is 4 years.
Some of the frequent facial features of autism are a broader upper face, shorter middle face, wider eyes, bigger mouth, and the philtrum [19]. The use of facial features as a physical marker to detect autism is one of the most exciting topics in autism research.
Some children with autism smile to show they're happy but don't share their enjoyment. Others show little facial expression or have flat affect and rarely smile so you may not know when they're happy.