New Study on Autistic Children’s Brain Development
August 23, 2006 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
A recent study suggests that autistic children’s brains, while larger than typical children’s brains, have molecular signs of developmental delay in the gray matter, but not the white matter. This finding challenges the theory that the brains of autistic individuals grow too large and mature too quickly. Stephen R. Dager, M.D., and his colleagues at the University of Washington studied the brains of 60 autistic children aged 2 – 4 years old using an MRI technique “that measures the physical properties of water in brain tissue,” according to today’s MedPage Today.
The study focused on “T2 transverse relaxation time”-a measurement of how fast certain electrons in water molecules change their spin orientation when subjected to radio frequency pulses. The T2 time indicates how much cellular versus extracellular water tissue contains and to what degree this water is “bound” to surrounding molecules.
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One possible suspect for that delayed growth is inflammation, possibly due to autoimmune activity in the brain, Dr. Dager and colleagues speculated. “Our T2 gray matter findings in the children with autism spectrum disorder, studied soon after clinical diagnosis was established, may reflect brain mechanisms involving neuroinflammation, which have been implicated in this disorder,” they wrote.
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Other possible mechanisms include deficits in the neuroregulatory protein Reelin or an overabundance of serotonin, which has been linked to aberrations in brain development and connectivity, they suggested.
Dr. Dager’s research is published in the August 22nd issue of Neurology.
