Autism and Hyperactivity: What Happens to the Neural Circuits in the Brain?

A recent study may explain why some children with autism show less interest in their social surroundings. According to researchers from the Case Western Reserve School of Medicine, findings suggest that while their brains are at rest, they're actually processing more information than the average individual. In fact, study findings show that on average, 42 percent more information is processed in this resting organ for autistic children than in others. 

"Our results suggest that autistic children are not interested in social interactions because their brains generate more information at rest, which we interpret as more introspection in line with early descriptions of the disorder," Roberto Fernández Galán, PhD, senior author and associate professor of neurosciences at Case Western Reserve School of Medicine said, via a press release.

Researchers used magnetoencephalography in order to record brain activity. Findings showed that autistic children's brains at rest generated more information than non-autistic children--further explaining many of these children's lack of interest in social interactions with others and surroundings.

"This is a novel interpretation because it is a different attempt to understand the children's cognition by analyzing their brain activity," José L. Pérez Velázquez, PhD, first author and professor of neuroscience at University of Toronto Institute of Medical Science and Department of Pediatrics, Brain and Behavior Center said, via a statement. "Measuring cognitive processes is not trivial; yet, our findings indicate that this can be done to some extent with well-established mathematical tools from physics and engineering."

At the end of the study, researchers said they hope that this may explain why some autistic children detach from their social environments. It also helps support the "Intense World Theory" of autism, which discusses how the disorder is the result of hyper-functioning neural circuits. 

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More information regarding the study can be found via the journal Frontiers in Neuroinformatics.