Connectopathy

Recent data have suggested that the atypical visual perception observed in ASD is caused by altered connectivity within parallel visual pathways and attention networks, thereby contributing to the impaired social communication observed in ASD. Therefore, we conclude that the underlying pathophysiological mechanism of ASD constitutes a “connectopathy.”

Any initial abnormality in connectivity might also lead to abnormal activity patterns, which could cause further development of abnormal connectivity. Connectopathy would accompany schizophrenia, but it would be difficult to say which is cause and which is effect.

If the latter, then schizophrenia was, in neurobiological parlance, a connectopathy— a disease rooted in how cells communicate with one another—and thus not readily discernable in slices or sections of postmortem brain tissue.