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Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities Research Center
Research Projects (Non-Federal Funding)
Project Title:
Diffusion Tensor Imaging of Autistic Spectrum
Disorders
Principal Investigator:
Mariana
Lazar, PhD
Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASD)
are brain developmental disorders that are characterized by impaired
social interaction, repetitive behavior, and verbal deficits.
Whereas the mechanisms of ASD are not known, it has been shown that
ASD are associated with abnormal function of the brain in tasks
involving emotional and social interaction. It has been hypothesized
that in the autistic brain, the communication between different
brain regions might be altered. The goal of this study is to
investigate the integrity and organization of white matter (WM)
pathways that connect cortical regions involved in emotion
processing using Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) and WM Tractography.
These techniques have been shown to be sensitive to WM structural
abnormalities in a variety of pathologies. In this study, the major
WM pathways of the limbic, frontal, and temporal lobes will be
investigated. A comparative study of the ASD and healthy groups will
be performed to detect WM regions and specific pathways that might
be affected in ASD. This study will be linked with a functional MRI
(fMRI) study in our lab that has shown abnormal activation patterns
in response to an emotional face stimulus. We will analyze possible
correlates between measures of WM structural integrity and measures
describing the fMRI performance. In addition to the data acquired in
our lab, DTI data sets of ASD subjects will be made available
through collaboration with the Utah Autism Research project. The
characterization of WM integrity may lead to the understanding of
the abnormal brain activation patterns that are observed in ASD and
of some of the ASD deficits.
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