IIT Study Finds Two Autism Subtypes via Brain Imaging
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- IIT and the Child Mind Institute coordinated a study published in Nature Neuroscience linking brain imaging patterns to autism biology.
- Researchers analyzed functional MRI scans from 940 autistic children and young adults and compared them with scans from over 1,000 neurotypical controls.
- Mouse-model analysis examined 20 genetically engineered mouse models of autism to map connectivity patterns to molecular pathways.
- Hyperconnectivity subtype showed increased brain region communication and was associated with immune-related biological systems.
- Hypoconnectivity subtype showed reduced brain region communication and was linked to synaptic pathways, together accounting for roughly 25% of the autistic participants.
Why it matters: Clinicians and families gain a biological basis for subclassifying autism, enabling more personalized care; researchers gain a framework to link imaging with molecular mechanisms, advancing the science of autism treatment.
