Representation of internal models of action in the autistic brain

• Published in: Nature neuroscience Vol. 12; no. 8; pp. 970 - 972
• Main Authors: Shadmehr, Reza, Haswell, Courtney C, Izawa, Jun, Dowell, Lauren R, Mostofsky, Stewart H
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Nature Publishing Group 01.08.2009
• Subjects: Animals; Autism; Autistic children; Autistic Disorder - complications; Autistic Disorder - physiopathology; Autistic Disorder - psychology; Brain; Brain - physiopathology; Child; Development and progression; Disability Evaluation; Feedback; Feedback - physiology; Female; Humans; Imitative Behavior - physiology; Learning - physiology; Male; Models, Neurological; Motor Skills - physiology; Movement - physiology; Movement Disorders - etiology; Movement Disorders - physiopathology; Movement Disorders - psychology; Neurons; Physiological aspects; Properties; Proprioception - physiology; Psychomotor Performance - physiology; Robots; Social Behavior Disorders - etiology; Social Behavior Disorders - physiopathology; Social Behavior Disorders - psychology; United States; United States > US; Maryland; Baltimore Maryland
• ISSN: 1097-6256; 1546-1726
• DOI: 10.1038/nn.2356

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have deficits in motor control, imitation and social function. Does a dysfunction in the neural basis of representing internal models of action contribute to these problems? We measured patterns of generalization as children learned to control a novel tool and found that the autistic brain built a stronger than normal association between self-generated motor commands and proprioceptive feedback; furthermore, the greater the reliance on proprioception, the greater the child's impairments in social function and imitation.