Treating autism by targeting the temporal lobes

Abstract

Compelling new findings suggest that an early core signature of autism is a deficient left anterior temporal lobe response to language and an atypical over-activation of the right anterior temporal lobe. Intriguingly, our recent results from an entirely different line of reasoning and experiments also show that applying cathodal stimulation (suppressing) at the left anterior temporal lobe together with anodal stimulation (facilitating) at the right anterior temporal lobe, by transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), can induce some autistic-like cognitive abilities in otherwise normal adults. If we could briefly induce autistic like cognitive abilities in healthy individuals, it follows that we might be able to mitigate some autistic traits by reversing the above stimulation protocol, in an attempt to restore the typical dominance of the left anterior temporal lobe. Accordingly, we hypothesize that at least some autistic traits can be mitigated, by applying anodal stimulation (facilitating) at the left anterior temporal lobe together with cathodal stimulation (suppressing) at the right anterior temporal lobe. Our hypothesis is supported by strong convergent evidence that autistic symptoms can emerge and later reverse due to the onset and subsequent recovery of various temporal lobe (predominantly the left) pathologies. It is also consistent with evidence that the temporal lobes (especially the left) are a conceptual hub, critical for extracting meaning from lower level sensory information to form a coherent representation, and that a deficit in the temporal lobes underlies autistic traits.