Discovering the Causes of Autism

Research at the UC San Diego Autism Center of Excellence is on the cutting edge of discovery into the causes of Autism Spectrum Disorder. Our studies focus on these main areas:

DTI Diffusion tensor imaging lets us look into the microstructure of white matter in the brain.	MRI Structural Magnetic Resonance Imaging reveals the neural underpinnings of autism.	fMRI Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging helps us map activity in the brain.
GENETICS A specific set of genes appear to operate abnormally during prenatal development in autism.	BRAIN TISSUE Defects in prenatal brain cell development may produce early brain overgrowth that causes autism.	STEM CELLS Stem cells may shed light on the underlying genetic, molecular and neural mechanisms of the disorder.