Volunteers ages 12 to 40 are being recruited for a brain-imaging study UC Davis researchers hope will shed light on a motivation in learning among the autistic.

UCD’s MIND Institute hopes to enroll participants who are both typically developing and who have been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder.

“We are trying to better isolate the kinds of strengths and challenges people with autism spectrum disorder have with respect to learning,” said Marjorie Solomon, principal investigator for the study and associate professor of clinical psychiatry, in a news release.

“We want to understand the neurobiology of those strengths and challenges so that we can help them to maximize their potential in life.”

Solomon and her colleagues are using behavioral evaluations and brain scans to study cognitive control and reward processing: a person’s ability to flexibly process information and change actions depending on internal goals.

Cognitive control allows a person to read the word “green” aloud even if the word is printed in red, for example. That ability is important in planning, problem solving and multi-tasking, Solomon said.

Volunteers will make one visit each to the MIND Institute and UCD’s Imaging Research Center. Participants will fill out questionnaires, complete computer-based brainteasers and puzzles, provide blood samples and have their brains scanned using  functional magnetic resonance imaging while they complete a learning task.

“Some get the pleasure of knowing they are helping people with autism, and those with autism get free testing and may help us to better understand their unique gifts,” Solomon said.

All study participants will compensated for their time, as well as receiving free assessments and a digital file of their own brain scan.

The study already includes more than 100 children and adults with autism. Researchers hope to enroll 200.

Those interested in participating may contact Jonathan Beck at (916) 703-0298.

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