dyspraxia and autism

There is universal dyspraxia in autism.

A hallmark of cerebellar functioning, classical eye blink conditioning, is abnormal in autism, both in amplitude and in latency of conditioned responses and in the rate of extinction.

Autistics have a general insensitivity to pain.

The eyes have a strong connection to the amygdala (part of the basal ganglia) that is related to strong emotional response.

Navigational tracts interconnect the eyes, the vestibular inner ear systems, the cerebellum, the pons, and the basal ganglia. From the basal ganglia the tracts go through the thalamus to the frontal cortex (frontal eye fields, premotor and motor areas). The basal ganglia are a collection of paired cell clusters buried deep below the cortex in white matter. The basal ganglia are spaced at a distance from each other but are interconnected by neural tracts. The basal ganglia include the corpus striatum, the globus pallidus, the substantia nigra, and the subthalamic nucleus. Together, these ganglia control complex patterns of movements such as walking. They control smooth voluntary movements.