Functional magnetic resonance imaging in children with Asperger's syndrome.

Asperger's syndrome is a pervasive developmental disorder of unknown etiology. We evaluated children with this syndrome (n = 9) and control (n = 8) children by functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) during a task involving social judgment. All control and 5 of 9 subjects with Asperger's syndrome showed signal intensity changes in frontal regions. Four patients with Asperger's syndrome, including one case with right frontal dysplasia, had no signal intensity change during the task. In this first functional MRI study of childhood Asperger's syndrome, frontal activation patterns demonstrated some differences between patients and normal subjects. Further studies using other functions frequently impaired in Asperger's syndrome are warranted.