From neuronal to human communication disorders: A novel approach to autism

authors

• Gepner Bruno

keywords

• Autism spectrum disorders
• Motion
• Emotion
• Perception
• Speed
• Temporal processing
• Slowing down
• Rehabilitation
• Imitation
• Synchronization
• Connectivity
• Neuron
• Synapse
• Genes

abstract

In this paper we draw the first lines of a novel gene-to-behaviour approach to Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). This approach is presented from behaviours and upstream to genes. We first present again our threefold -clinical, experimental and theoretical- approach to autism, the so-called E-Motion mis-sight and other temporospatial processing disorders. According to our view, subjects with ASD present from the beginning of their life different degrees of disability in processing sensory events online and in producing real-time sensory-motor adjustments and motor outputs. The environmental world is changing too fast to be processed on time by the autistic brain, leading to the primary communicative, cognitive and imitative disorders of persons with ASD, and to their secondary adaptive and compensatory strategies. Confirming this view, we present several results demonstrating that slowing down visual and auditory flows around individuals with ASD enhances their performance in imitation, verbal comprehension and facial expression recognition. Then we show that these temporospatial processing disorders are based on multisystem dissynchrony and disconnectivity (MDD), i.e., disorders in neuronal synchronization (hypo- and/or hypersynchronization) and functional connectivity (over- and/or under-connectivity) between multiple neurofunctional territories and pathways. We show that MDD is based itself on structural and functional abnormalities of the brain, and we finally relate these neuronal and synaptic abnormalities to their genetic counterparts.

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