Massive brain study seeks clues to Autism's mysteries

Copied word for word from the study's registry entry, so the wording is the study team's rather than ours.

* INCLUSION CRITERIA: Subjects will include: 1. males and females. 2. 5-89 years of age. 3. A minimum IQ of 70 Subjects in the ASD group will: 1. meet DSM-IV criteria for one of the pervasive developmental disorders (i.e., autistic disorder, Asperger disorder, or pervasive developmental disorder-not otherwise specified). 2. meet or pass the autism cut-off score for social symptoms on the ADI and/or the ASD cut-off score from social+communication symptoms on the ADOS. 3. be able to provide their own consent (for adults). For inclusion in the facial recognition substudy, subjects must be: 1. ages 18 to 35 2. in good health 3. with bad memory of faces EXCLUSION CRITERIA: All subjects, except for savants, also will be excluded if they have: 1. a history of neurological insult/injury. 2. substantial prenatal drug exposure known to affect later brain and behavior (e.g., cocaine, alcohol). 3. severely premature birth or birth trauma. 4. severe medical disorder (e.g., neurofibromatosis, hydrocephalus, cerebral palsy, uncontrollable seizure disorder). 5. a known genetic disorder (e.g., Fragile X or Down syndrome) that would be expected to significantly impact findings from cognitive testing and/or neuroimaging. Furthermore, subjects will be excluded from MRI/MEG studies, if they have: 6. any exclusion from MRI scanning including: the presence of metal in their body, having a pacemaker, and/or females who are pregnant. Healthy volunteers, except for parents of individuals with autism spectrum disorders and parents of healthy volunteers, will also be excluded if they have: 1\. a current or past history of axis I psychiatric conditions or any current usage of psychiatric medication. Savants have less restrictive exclusionary criteria because: 1) they are a very rare group, thus we don t want to limit recruitment further and 2) we can examine common and unique cognitive mechanisms across savants, a question of keen interest, regardless of co-morbidities. Those with tumors or other neuroimaging-relevant contraindications will be excluded from fMRI/MEG procedures.