Some Autistic Children Better at Math due to Altered Brain Organization

Autistic children with average IQ outperformed their non-autistic peers in math tests, a study conducted by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital showed. Researchers found that, kids with the condition possessed some differences in certain regions of the brain that helped them perform better at math tests.

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) is a group of developmental disabilities that can cause significant social, communication and behavioral challenges. According to estimates by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), In the US, 1 in 88 children and 1 in every 54 boys are born with autism.

The latest study included a small group of 36 children of which 13 were diagnosed with autism. All children had average verbal and reading skills. But children with autism performed better than non-autistic children on tests that required numerical ability.

Researchers even interviewed the children to assess the kind of problem-solving skills they used. They found that children with autism were better at a problem-solving technique called decomposition wherein a person breaks down a complex problem into smaller bits. Researchers found that autistic children employed superior strategies to find an answer than other average children.

These children were then hooked on to a brain scanner and researchers looked at their brain activity while they were taking a math test.

Brain scans of autistic children showed unusually high activity in the ventral temporal occipital cortex- an area known to process information about visual objects, including faces.

"Our findings suggest that altered patterns of brain organization in areas typically devoted to face processing may underlie the ability of children with autism to develop specialized skills in numerical problem solving," Teresa Iuculano, PhD, the lead author of the study, said.

The study shows that children with autism with superior numeric and analytical skills have a unique brain organization than other children, said Carl Feinstein, MD, director of the Center for Autism and Related Disorders at Packard Children's. Feinstein wasn't part of the current study.

The study is published in the journal Biological Psychiatry.  

Note that not all children with autism have superior numeracy skills or are devoid of emotions. These children have intense interest in a particular subject and may get really good at that particular subject. In the current study, researchers found that autistic children with average IQ do better at tasks that require mathematical abilities.

"There appears to be a unique pattern of brain organization that underlies superior problem-solving abilities in children with autism," said Vinod Menon, PhD, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Packard Children's.

Some children with autism have a strong memory while some others are good at mathematics. Recently, German software giant SAP announced that it plans to hire thousands of people diagnosed with autism as IT experts at its offices in India and Ireland.

"Remembering calendar dates is probably not going to help you with academic and professional success," Menon said in a news release. "But being able to solve numerical problems and developing good mathematical skills could make a big difference in the life of a child with autism."