Computational approach to understanding Autism Spectrum Disorders

Every year the prevalence of Autism Spectrum of Disorders (ASD) is rising. Is there a unifying mechanism of various ASD cases at the genetic, molecular, cellular or systems level? The hypothesis advanced in this paper is focused on neural dysfunctions that lead to problems with attention in autistic people. Simulations of attractor neural networks performing cognitive functions help to assess system long-term neurodynamics. The Fuzzy Symbolic Dynamics (FSD) technique is used for the visualization of attractors in the semantic layer of the neural model of reading. Large-scale simulations of brain structures characterized by a high order of complexity requires enormous computational power, especially if biologically motivated neuron models are used to investigate the influence of cellular structure dysfunctions on the network dynamics. Such simulations have to be implemented on computer clusters in a grid-based architectures.