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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.
This research was funded by grants from the National Alliance for Autism Research/Autism Speaks, the US National Institutes of Health (R01 NS037422, R01 NS048527 and K02 NS044850) and the
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Institute for Clinical and Translational Research, a US National Institutes of Health/National Center for Research Resources Clinical and
Transitional Science Award Program (UL1-RR025005).
Department of Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
Kennedy Krieger Institute, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
Departments of Neurology and Psychiatry, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
C.C.H. and J.I. conducted the robot experiments, L.R.D. conducted the social, praxis and imitation experiments and R.S. and S.H.M. wrote the manuscript.
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