1.   Children with autism lack the necessary neural connections to learn automatically, but those connections can be established through repetition and reinforcement, Dawson said.

2.   During this developmental window, the brain explodes with a profusion of neural connections that is then pruned back by experience into precise circuitry.

3.   Neural connections from the cortex down to the amygdala are less well developed than are connections from the amygdala back up to the cortex.

4.   Perhaps parental soothing trains this circuit, strengthening the neural connections that form it, so that the child learns how to calm herself down.

5.   The quest to restore the neural connections in the brain has been spurred by two recent scientific developments.

6.   There seems to be some direct neural connection between garden gazing and photo snapping.

7.   Although the study did not find memories had improved, researchers said estrogen may stimulate the brain to make the type of neural connections typically seen in younger people.