People with autism use their brain resources differently, which may explain why some show strong abilities in remembering visual details, a new study suggests.

Researchers in Montreal reviewed 15 years of data on the way the autistic brain works when interpreting faces, objects and written words for 357 people with autism and 370 non-autistic individuals.

The study in Monday's issue of the journal Human Brain Mapping concludes the brains of autistic people show more activity in the temporal and occipital regions at the back that perceive and recognize patterns and objects.

"We have a natural tendency to think that first, autism is an illness, and then illness is a disorganization," said study author Dr. Laurent Mottron of the University of Montreal's Centre for Excellence in Pervasive Development Disorders.

"Here what we see is that autism is a reorganization. We have a specific pattern with specific functions, and which corresponds to their performance at the behavioural level," he added in an in interview. The areas of the brain that perceive and recognize patterns and objects are more active in autism, says Dr. Laurent Mottron. Courtesy University of Montreal

The findings suggest the areas at the back of the brain are more highly developed in some people with autism.

They also showed less activity in the frontal cortex than non-autistics, said another study author, Fabienne Samson, of the same centre.

The frontal areas of the brain are involved with decision making, cognitive control, planning and execution, Samson said.

The research was funded by Autism Speaks, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Canadian Institutes for Health Research and Quebec's health research funding agency.

With files from CBC's Heather Evans