New research in Journal of Neuroscience explores how a particular region of the brainstem might explain differences in attention in people with autism. In day-to-day life, we are confronted with an abundance of information, and have to be able to selectively attend to the most relevant aspects of our environment. A region of the brainstem called the locus coeruleus is involved in controlling attention. Because people with autism spectrum disorder show differences in how they regulate their attention, Granovetter et al. explored how the locus coeruleus behaves in individuals with autism.
Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) exhibit atypical attentional behaviors, including altered sensory responses and atypical fixedness, but the neural mechanism underlying these behaviors remains elusive. One candidate mechanism is atypical locus coeruleus (LC) activity, as the LC plays a critical role in attentional modulation.
Read more at: https://neurosciencenews.com/attention-autism-16083/