# Autistic individuals show altered white matter in long-range brain pathways

Source: [PsyPost – Psychology News](https://www.psypost.org/autistic-individuals-show-altered-white-matter-in-long-range-brain-pathways/) · 2026-11-11 · Mind
Page: https://themorning.science/story/autistic-individuals-show-altered-white-matter-in-long-range-brain-pathways-dd8f7f28ce2c6b30
Kind: research · Impact: medium

## In brief

- A meta-analysis of 66 studies found that autistic individuals tend to show differences in the microstructure of many brain white matter tracts.
- Compared with typically developing individuals, autistic individuals showed moderately lower fractional anisotropy, a measure often interpreted as an indicator of white matter integrity.

## Why it matters

It pools many studies on white matter microstructure in autism, giving science readers a broad summary of diffusion MRI findings on long-range brain pathways.

## Coverage

- [Autistic individuals show altered white matter in long-range brain pathways](https://www.psypost.org/autistic-individuals-show-altered-white-matter-in-long-range-brain-pathways/) — PsyPost – Psychology News, 2026-11-11

Tags: autism, white matter, neuroscience, diffusion mri, meta-analysis

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Brief generated by AI (claude-haiku-5-5) from the reporting listed under Coverage. Headlines belong to their publishers. The Morning Science – https://themorning.science