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Summary Autism spectrum disorder (ASD), a neurodevelopmental disorder affecting nearly 1 in 88 children, is thought to result from aberrant brain connectivity. Remarkably, there have been no systematic attempts to characterize whole-brain connectivity in children with ASD. Here, we use neuroimaging to show there are more instances of greater functional connectivity in the brains of children with ASD compared with typically developing children. Hyper-connectivity in ASD was observed at the whole-brain and subsystems level, across long- and short-range connections, and was associated with higher levels of fluctuations in regional brain signals. Brain hyper-connectivity predicted symptom severity in ASD such that children with greater functional connectivity exhibited more severe social deficits. We replicated these findings in two additional independent cohorts, demonstrating again that at earlier ages, the brain in ASD is largely functionally hyper-connected in ways that contribute to social dysfunction. Our findings provide novel insights into brain mechanisms underlying childhood autism.

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In this paper, we review the most recent and often conflicting findings on conventional measures of executive control in autism spectrum disorders. We discuss the obstacles to accurate measurement of executive control, such as: its prolonged developmental trajectory; lack of consensus on its definition and if it is a unitary construct; the inherent complexity of executive control; and the difficulty measuring executive control functions in laboratory or clinical settings. We review the potential of an ecological validity framework to address some of these problems, and describe new tests claiming verisimilitude, or close resemblance to "real life" demands. We also review the concept of veridicality, which allows for the measurement of the ecological validity of any task, and discuss the few studies addressing ecological validity in individuals with autism. Our review suggests that a multi-source approach emphasizing veridicality may provide the most comprehensive assessment of executive control in autism. KeywordsExecutive Function; Autism; Ecological Validity; Asperger's; Cognitive Control; Neuropsychology Executive control is a widely studied construct in the field of autism spectrum disorders, henceforth referred to in this paper as autism. Though the research findings are inconsistent (see below), most clinicians, teachers, and family members agree that individuals with autism have difficulties with various aspects of executive control in their daily lives. This review will explore this discrepancy by addressing the following three questions:1. What do we know about conventional executive control tasks and autism? 2. Why is the executive control profile in autism so confusing?3. Where do we go from here?Our goal is to highlight novel areas of research in this field that could: advance the study of executive control in autism; improve its ability to capture the daily executive control obstacles that impair individuals with autism; and provide new targets for intervention.