Editorial: Advanced Neuroimaging Methods for Studying Autism Disorder

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a pervasive developmental disorder that affects 1 in 68 children (Christensen et al., 2016), and whose causes are still mostly unknown. Autistic symptomatology is characterized by impairments in social interaction, communication, and emotional abilities, while sparing basic cognitive skills. Many attempts have been made to provide neurobiological models of autism. Functional, structural, and connectivity analyses based on magnetic resonance imaging data have highlighted reduced responses in key social areas, such as amygdala, medial prefrontal cortex, cingulate cortex, and superior temporal sulcus. However, these studies present discrepant results and some of them have been questioned for methodological limitations. During the last few years, new neuroimaging methodologies have been developed providing more sophisticated techniques and more precise methods for investigating brain structure and function. The aim of this research topic is to present advanced neuroimaging methods able to capture the complexity of the neural deficits displayed in autism.