IIT Finds 2 Autism Brain Subtypes in 25% of 940 Scans

3 articles · Updated · The European Scientist · Jun 15

Functional MRI data from 940 autistic children and young adults revealed two reproducible autism subtypes—hyperconnectivity and hypoconnectivity—that together described about 25% of participants.
Twenty mouse models helped researchers map those scan patterns to biology: reduced connectivity tracked synaptic pathways, while increased connectivity aligned with immune-related systems.
More than 1,000 neurotypical scans and data from dozens of independent sites supported the finding, with the same two signatures appearing consistently across datasets.
Standard autism assessments showed only slight differences between the groups, suggesting brain-based markers capture biological variation that behavior alone misses.
Nature Neuroscience published the work as a step toward precision autism care, though the team said larger datasets will likely uncover additional subtypes.