A research group led by Takao Yamazaki, an academic researcher at the Graduate School of Medicine, Kyushu University, and Professor Shozo Tobimatsu, found that atypical visual cognition of the autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a disease of neural connections in the brain network. It was found that it was derived from a connection abnormality (connect patchy).This achievement was published in the online version of the international journal "Frontiers in Neuroscience".
ASD has hyperesthesia and hypoesthesia for visual information, and it has been pointed out that these paresthesia may be the basis of social disorders in ASD. Even in the 2000s, little was known about its mechanism in the brain.
The research group has been conducting research on the visual cognition of ASD continuously for the past 10 years using evoked EEG (a test that captures the specific response of the brain to a certain stimulus) and diffusion tensor MRI (a test that captures the running of nerve fibers). rice field.
Based on these series of research results and literature review, we have presented a new model for visual network abnormalities occurring in ASD.In other words, the pathophysiology of ASD is not a disorder of a single brain region, but a disorder of a complex functional and structural brain network between multiple brain regions. He proposed a new concept of disease that exists.Connectopathy means "disease ([o] pathy)" of "connect".
In the future, we would like to further elucidate the pathophysiology of ASD from the viewpoint of connect patchy by using various non-invasive brain function measurement methods and mathematical analysis methods.In addition, although visual paresthesia has been adopted as a diagnostic criterion for ASD, an objective index has not yet been established.By further developing this research, he hopes to contribute to the development of early diagnostic biomarkers for ASD and early intervention.
