CART Brain Imaging Study on Children with Autism and on Typically Developing Children

In two recent fMRI studies, we have shown that ASD children:

1. could recruit normative neural networks when interpreting a speaker's communicative intent if explicit instructions are provided to direct their attention to the speaker's facial expression, but
2. failed to activate the basal ganglia during an implicit language learning task.

The first aim of the proposed project is to examine whether the MNS can be brought 'online' in children with ASD.

Our second aim is to examine the functioning of the MNS in children with ASD who previously participated in a randomized controlled intervention study.

Lastly, our third aim is to investigate the reward system in ASD - a system known to modulate implicit learning in both animal and human models - as well as to explore the interface between reward and mirror neuron circuitry.