Recent Discoveries (updated November 2010):
Autism:
The left and right hemispheres of the brain are abnormally connected in autism. The connections that are most abnormal are those that involve brain regions known to process functions that are abnormal in autism, such as recognizing faces, social interactions, and attention. Results are now online at Cerebral Cortex:
http://cercor.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2010/10/12/cercor.bhq190.full.pdf
Press:
http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=12798200
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/10/101013082818.htm
http://www.diagnosticimaging.com/brain-mri/content/article/113619/1695000
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700073202/MRI-may-be-diagnostic-tool-for-autism.html
http://news.health.com/2010/10/14/mri-might-screen-for-autism/
http://www.physorg.com/news/2010-10-autism-mri-closer.html
http://news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20101015/hl_hsn/mrimightscreenforautism
http://www.newschannel5.com/Global/story.asp?S=13322535
Color map of interhemispheric connectivity.
Attention:
At any moment there are many things one can pay attention to such as sights, sounds, and internal thoughts. We show that in areas of the brain that process attention, there is a map of the world, with subregions for each of the senses. This allows a “wiring diagram” for control of attention that can explain how we can switch our attention from one thing to another. Read the details now online at Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences:
http://www.pnas.org/content/107/46/20110.full.pdf+html
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/11/101101151724.htm
http://esciencenews.com/articles/2010/11/01/utah.researchers.discover.how.brain.wired.attention
Map of “attentional space” in the intraparietal sulcus region.