Structural Brain Abnormalities Identified in Autistic Patients

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http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/425494

 

Structural Brain Abnormalities Identified in Autistic Patients

 

 

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) Feb 12 - Autistic patients differ from healthy subjects in the size, number, and arrangement of minicolumns, the basic functional unit of the brain, according to a report published in the February 12th issue of Neurology.

Dr. Manuel F. Casanova, from Downtown VA Medical Center in Augusta, and colleagues used a computerized imaging program to analyze the brains of nine autistic subjects and nine control subjects. The specific regions analyzed included the prefrontal cortex and the temporal lobe.

The minicolumns in autistic brains were more numerous, smaller, and less compact in their arrangement than those found in control brains, the investigators note.

"Analyzing minicolumns offers a new way of investigating neurologic diseases," Dr. Casanova told Reuters Health. "Classic neuroanatomy typically involves the analysis of the neuron, which doesn't tell you anything about the brain's circuitry," he noted. Furthermore, "the differences we uncovered using a computer program could not have been picked up with the human eye."

Dr. Casanova noted that "the greater number of minicolumns identified supports the theory that autistic patients are actually flooded with stimuli rather than deprived." The "signal-to-noise ratio in these patients is altered in favor of more signal," he added.

However, "under certain circumstances, this may actually be beneficial, allowing these patients to focus better on the task at hand."

Neurology 2002;58:428-432.

 

 


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