Aspies For Freedom

By Age 2 Autistic Children's Brains Grow Larger, Why Is Not Clear

Medical News Today
Article Date: 06 Dec 2005

By age 2, children with the often-devastating neurological condition physicians call autism show a generalized enlargement of their brains, a new University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University medical schools study concludes.

Exactly why this roughly 5 percent greater brain growth occurs and what it means are not yet clear, scientists said. Indirect evidence suggested that the increased brain growth probably began during the later months of the children's first year of life.

A report on the finding appears in the December issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry. UNC authors are Dr. Heather Cody Hazlett, assistant professor of psychiatry; Dr. Michele Poe, a statistician with the FPG Child Development Institute; Dr. Guido Gerig, professor of computer science; imaging technician Rachel Gimpel Smith; and Drs. John Gilmore and Joseph Piven, professors of psychiatry.

At UNC, Piven, the senior author, directs both its Study to Advance Autism Research and Treatment (STAART) Center and its Neurodevelopmental Disorders Research Center. Duke authors are Drs. James Provenzale and Allison Ross, professor of radiology and associate professor of anesthesiology, respectively.

"Our team conducted brain magnetic resonance imaging scans on 51 autistic and 25 control children at age 2, making it the largest study of two-year-olds with autism," Cody Hazlett said. "Analysis of brain tissue volumes showed significant enlargement, across all regions in both gray and white tissue, in the cerebral cortex of the autistic children.

"While we saw the greatest volume increases in the temporal lobe, an area of the brain involved in language, we concluded that at this age, tissue enlargement is present throughout the cortex."

In the same paper, the team reported on the largest retrospective study of head circumference in autism reported to date, comparing head circumference measurements on 113 autistic children to 190 other youngsters who served as controls. Measurements took place periodically from birth to age 3.

"Our head circumference data suggest that enlarged head size is not present at birth and that the onset of enlarged head size in autistic children begins, on average, at around 12 months," Cody Hazlett said. "These findings, together with our brain volume data, give us reason to believe that a period of brain overgrowth in autism may occur between 12 months and 2 years of age.

"We do not know whether this brain enlargement plays a primary role in autism, or is a downstream effect of another process," she said. "Further studies of very early brain development may help us better understand the timing and nature of this brain overgrowth."

About four times as many male children suffer from autism as females, Cody Hazlett said. The disorder varies in severity, but affected patients often face mental retardation, poorly developed language skills and difficulty developing social relationships.

Grant support for the study, which builds on earlier work, came from the National Institutes of Health's mental health and child and human development institutes (NIMH and HICHD). Assistance also came from the Treatment and Education of Autistic and Related Communication Handicapped Children (TEACCH) centers and the Neurodevelopmental Disorders Research Center Autism Subjects Registry.

David Williamson
rdtokids@email.unc.edu
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
http://www.unc.edu

Source: Medical News Today
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicaln...wsid=34557

Though the language of the article might well be improved upon here and there, the probability of us having larger brains/heads/hat sizes than NTs has been shewn over and over again, and was even very obvious in a recent AFF poll on the subject.

It must mean something - perhaps something very important indeed -  but exactly what no one seems to know just yet. We'll have to wait and see!

Stella

Larger head = larger brain = higher/different intelligence?

Enlarged Brain Might Be Hallmark of Autism
Head circumference also begins to increase after age 1, study found

WEDNESDAY, Dec. 7 (HealthDay News) -- Brain enlargement may signal autism, according to a study that found evidence of abnormal brain size in children with the disorder.

Researchers at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill analyzed the MRIs of the brains of 51 autistic children and 25 children without autism. The children were aged 18 to 35 months. They also studied head circumference measurements from 113 children with autism and 189 children without the disorder.

"Significant enlargement was detected in cerebral cortical volumes but not cerebellar volumes in individuals with autism," the study authors wrote. "Enlargement was present in both white and gray matter, and it was generalized throughout the cerebral cortex."

The cerebral cortex, a thin layer of gray matter lying at the upper front portion of the brain, is in charge of higher-level, executive functions. The cerebellum lies behind the main mass of the brain and controls voluntary muscle movements and other activities.

The study also found that in children with autism, "head circumference appears normal at birth, with a significantly increased rate of head circumference growth appearing to begin around 12 months of age."

"The findings from this study confirm the presence of generalized cerebral cortical gray matter and white matter brain volume enlargement at age 2 in individuals with autism," the study authors concluded. "Given the strong relationship between head circumference and brain volume, the onset of this enlargement appears likely to be during the postnatal [after birth] period, and may begin as late as the latter part of the first year of life."

The study appears in the December issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry.

Source: Health Central
http://www.healthcentral.com/newsdetail/408/529494.html

[/quote]Eugenics in disguise. Beware.

Note: I messed up the quotes.

Eugenics in disguise. Beware.

Note: I messed up the quotes.[/quote]

Where did this quote come from? If it is true that Aspies are on the autistic spectrum, then the quote can't be true.  Autistics would have a better chance of being retarded and low functioning.  For every HFA or Aspie, there must be at least 10 LFAs.

No I messed up the quote, the above was supposed to be the quote.

I have drawn attention to this misunderstanding in another thread. There are very many more with HFA/Asperger's than so-called "LFA."

Stella

We don't know that for sure. Those stats you provided may not be accurate. For one thing, there seems to be much overlap between the LFA and HFA groups.  People with IQs in the range of 70 - 100 are counted as HFA which may be an accurate description but I was comparing autistics with above average intelligence with those of below average, below an IQ of 100.

Similar rates of prevalence are reported elsewhere in Europe, in Australia,
in Canada, in the United States, in Japan....

Perhaps you should read up on the subject, and get to know more about it!  :smile:

Stella

There is not much to know because the subject is largly unknown. The link where you got your stats from says this. Before AS became known, it was thought that all autistic people were retarded.  Now that AS has become such a popular condition things have changed.  I still say the Einsteins are rare among us. For every person like him, there must be a thousand autistic people with IQs of less than a 100.

Back to the topic, could it be that an enlarged brain is only advantageous to a certain degree? After a certain point, this enlargement could become detrimental as observed in LFAs.

So the higher you score on IQ tests, the more normal you are or is it the other way around?

There is so much data about this enlargement from so many disparate sources, as well as our own anecdotal evidence, that it cannot be reasonably doubted.

Whatever its cause, and ultimate significance, you don't need the brains of an archbishop to realize that this enlargement of the cranium could not be undone by chelation, or ABA, or electric shock "therapy" at the Judge Rotenberg Center, or any sort of special diet or nutrients.

We are stuck with it for good or ill.

Stella

It would depend on what parts of the brain are larger.

I know that connections beteewn neurons are more important than than there number.