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Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are a category of pervasive developmental disorders (PDD) that affect 1 in 150 children, and whose causes are still mostly unknown. Autistic symptomatology is characterized by severe impairments that mainly affect social interaction, while spare basic cognitive skills and do not imply emotional disturbance. Widespread abnormalities are also found in communication. Notably, autistic children usually have difficulties to develop language and in some circumstances do not even acquire meaningful speech. Many attempts have been made to provide neurobiological models of autism. Functional magnetic resonance imaging investigations have highlighted reduced responses in social key areas, as the amygdala, medial prefrontal cortex, cingulate cortex and superior temporal sulcus. Furthermore, a recent study on functional connectivity in autism indicates abnormal patterns of both over- and under-connectivity in areas mediating ToM and in the mirror neuron system as well. However, MR structural studies on autistic subjects present discrepant results. During the last few years, neuroimaging methodologies continued to develop providing more sophisticated techniques for investigating brain structure and function. First of all we are talking about methods of structural, functional and effective connectivity that provides us with the knowledge about the information exchange between brain areas. Here are some examples: Structural connectivity, Functional connect...

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