Title: Structural brain abnormalities in adolescents with autism spectrum disorder and patients with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder.
Author: Brieber, Sarah; Neufang, Susanne; Bruning, Nicole; Kamp-Becker, Inge; Remschmidt, Helmut; Herpertz-Dahlmann, Beate; Fink, Gereon R; Konrad, Kerstin.
Source: Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. Vol 48(12) Dec 2007, 1251-1258.
This is a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) study of the brains of children with Asperger’s (15), children with ADHD (15), and children with typical development (15). The researchers found that kids with Asperger’s and kids with ADHD did not differ in hyperactivity and inattention symptoms. However, the brains of these two groups differed from those of the typically developing kids in that kids with ADHD and Asperger’s showed less brain mass in a region called the medial temporal lobe and more brain mass in a region called the parietal cortex. However, the most interesting finding is that only the children with Asperger’s showed more brain mass in an area called the right supramarginal gyrus, which is an area of the brain that has been associated with social cognition, including theory of mind. Note: more brain mass does not necessarily mean “better”.
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