Is autism a disconnection disorder?

摘要

Since Kanner and Asperger first described autism and Asperger's syndrome in the 1940s there has been an exponential increase in the number of studies examining the biological basis of these disorders. There has similarly been an exponential increase in the number of theoretical proposals to explain the cause of autistic spectrum disorder (ASD). It is widely acknowledged that ASD has a strong genetic component and there is much indirect evidence for brain abnormalities, however, these have yet to be defined precisely. The increasing number of neuroimaging studies on autism has resulted in many new suggestions about the underlying brain abnormalities. However, diagnosis is still made from the observation of behaviour. The recent paper by Just and colleagues1 confirms the presence of brain abnormalities, but will not provide a new diagnostic test.