A systematic examination of early perceptual influences on low-, mid and high-level visual abilities in Autism Spectrum Disorder

Persistent Angiogenesis in the Autism Brain: An Immunocytochemical Study of Postmortem Cortex, Brainstem and Cerebellum

“…We propose the sustained splitting angiogenesis is a necessary component to maintain the heightened neuronal activity reported in ASD patients. Many biological and functional indicators are increased in ASD including cerebral metabolic rate (Rumsey et al 1985; Siegel et al 1992), regional synchronous electrical activity (Perez Velazquez et al 2009; Rumsey and Ernst 2000), sensitivity to sound (Stiegler and Davis 2010; Thabet 2014); cortical activity in deactivation centers at rest (Kennedy et al 2006a, b), low-level visuospatial processing (Guy et al 2015), visual-tactile interactions (Poole et al 2015); attention to low-level perceptual information (O’Connor and Kirk 2008) and over-connected, redundant cortical networks (Whyte et al 2015; Keown et al 2013; Supekar et al 2013). It can be suggested that sustained rearrangement of microvasculature permits excessive shorter and local connections to be maintained and prevents the growth of longer and more complex brain connections required for language and social interactions.…”