Autism therapy activates brain’s social side

UC SANTA BARBARA / YALE (US) — Researchers have documented positive changes in brain activity in children with autism after they received a type of behavioral therapy.

"There's a social deficit in autism, so any improvement toward social interaction really helps with development. That's what makes this very exciting," says Avery C. Voos, a graduate student at UC Santa Barbara.

The team used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure the effect of Pivotal Response Treatment (PRT) on both lower- and higher-functioning children with autism receiving the therapy for the first time.

The brain images allows researchers to see what areas are active while processing certain stimuli—in this case human motion. Comparing pre- and post-therapy data from the fMRI scans of their 5-year-old subjects, the researchers report seeing marked—and remarkable—changes in how the children were processing the stimuli.

“The cool thing that we found was that these kids showed increased activation in regions of the brain utilized by typically developing kids,” says Avery C. Voos, first-year graduate student at the Koegel Autism Center at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Voos co-led the study published in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.

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Straight from the Source: Read the original study
DOI: 10.1007/s10803-012-1683-9

Oxytocin Improves Brain Function in Children With Autism

ScienceDaily (May 19, 2012) — Preliminary results from an ongoing, large-scale study by Yale School of Medicine researchers shows that oxytocin -- a naturally occurring substance produced in the brain and throughout the body -- increased brain function in regions that are known to process social information in children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders (ASD).

A Yale Child Study Center research team that includes postdoctoral fellow Ilanit Gordon and Kevin Pelphrey, the Harris Associate Professor of Child Psychiatry and Psychology, will present the results on May 19 at the International Meeting for Autism Research.

"Our findings provide the first, critical steps toward devising more effective treatments for the core social deficits in autism, which may involve a combination of clinical interventions with an administration of oxytocin," said Gordon. "Such a treatment approach will fundamentally improve our understanding of autism and its treatment." [ READ MORE ]