Brain Abnormalities in Language Disorders and in Autism

It has been speculated that autism and specific language impairment share common underlying neural substrates because of the overlap in language impairment issues and evidence suggesting parallels in other domains and implying a possible shared genetic risk. Anatomically the two sets of disorders have generally been studied using different methodologies, but when identical methodologies have been used substantial similarities have been noted. Functionally there is a growing body of literature suggesting sensory perception abnormalities that have parallels in both conditions and that may be upstream of language abnormalities. Finding upstream mechanisms that impact language and non-language abnormalities in autism and specific language impairment would impact the orientation taken by translational attempts to use science to design treatments.