Autistic brains develop slowly and differently

By Shelby D Burns, Sun, October 30, 2011

There may be an explanation for why autistic children act and think differently than their peers: connections between brain regions that are important for language and social skills grow much ore slowly in boys with autism than in non-autistic children. Researchers from UCLA found aberrant growth rates in areas of the brain implicated in social impairment, communication deficits and repetitive behaviors that characterize autism. Their research is publish in the journal Human Brain Mapping.

Normally, as children grow to teens and to adulthood, their brains grow and change too. The brain makes new connections, called white matter, and discards unused brain cells, called gray matter. This is all a part of a very sophisticated process meant to make the brain more efficient.

“Because the brain of a child with autism develops more slowly during this critical period of life, these children may have an especially difficult time struggling to establish personal identity, develop social interactions and refine emotional skills,” said first author Xua Hua, a UCLA postdoctoral researcher. “This new knowledge may help to explain some of the symptoms of autism and could improve future treatment options.”

Researchers scanned the brains of boys at two different times in their lives to look at brain development and then compared that to boys with normally developing brains. They found that white matter for language and social skills was growing much slower but also they discovered that in two areas of the brain (for learning and cognitive and emotional processing) unused cells were not being properly eliminated.

“Together this creates unusual brain circuits, with cells that are overly connected to their close neighbors and under-connected to important cells further away, making it difficult for the brain to process information in a normal way,” Hua explained.

“The delayed brain growth in autism may also suggest a different approach for educational intervention in adolescent and adult patients, since we now know their brains are wired differently to perceive information,” suggested Hua.

Source: Human Brain Mapping, ScienceDaily

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