PET imaging reveals link between synapses and social, communicative differences in autistic adults

New research published in Molecular Psychiatry looks at the differences in social interaction and communication observed in autistic and non-autistic adults, using positron emission tomography (PET), a type of brain imaging. In the study, PET was used to directly measure the connections between brain cells (synapses).

“This is the first time it has been done in autism, and we learned that autistic adults have fewer of these synapses throughout their brains. We also learned that this was very strongly related to the social and communicative differences in autism,” says James McPartland, Ph.D., Harris Professor in the Child Study Center at Yale School of Medicine.

In this imaging study, McPartland says they also learned that the fewer synapses a person had, the more likely they were to show difficulties in social interaction and communication. These findings give insight as to what might be actually happening in the brain that accounts for the challenges many autistic people experience, he says. “It gives us important ideas about how we might better support autistic people,” says McPartland.