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Updated: Jun 21, 2026

Probing the Brain in Autism Using fMRI and Diffusion Tensor Imaging
Published on: September 12, 2011
Representation of internal models of action in the autistic brain
Courtney C Haswell1, Jun Izawa, Lauren R Dowell
1Department of Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
Abstract:
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.
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