Brain abnormalities mapped in autistic children

Brain abnormalities mapped in autistic children
A family member speaks to an autistic child during a training session in an equestrian club in Paris, November 8, 2003. Autistic children have more gray matter in areas of the brain that control social processing and sight-based learning than children without the developmental disability, a small study said on Wednesday. (Philippe Wojazer/Reuters)CHICAGO (Reuters) - Autistic children have more gray matterin areas of the brain that control social processing andsight-based learning than children without the developmentaldisability, a small study said on Wednesday.
Researchers combined two sophisticated imaging techniquesto track the motion of water molecules in the brain andpinpoint small changes in gray matter volume in 13 boys withhigh-functioning autism or Asperger syndrome and 12 healthyadolescents. Their average age was 11.
The autistic children were found to have enlarged graymatter in the parietal lobes of the brain linked to the mirrorneuron system of cells associated with empathy, emotionalexperience and learning through sight.
Those children also showed a decrease in gray matter volumein the right amygdala region of the brain that correlated withdegrees of impairment in social interaction, the study found.
The researchers assessed patient brain function using acombination of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and a new imagingmethod called apparent diffusion coefficient based morphometry(ABM). Their findings were presented at the annual meeting ofthe Radiological Society of North America in Chicago.
Unlike earlier technology, the technique can detect subtlechanges in thousands of small sections of the brain, said thestudy's lead author, Manzar Ashtari of the Children's Hospitalof Philadelphia. "Now we have sharper tools," Ashtari said inan interview.
Larger amounts of gray matter in the left parietal area ofthe brain correlated with higher IQs in the control group ofchildren but not in the autistic children, because that sectionof gray matter is not functioning properly, Ashtari said.
Autism affects about 1.5 million Americans, according tothe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Considered thefastest-growing developmental disability in the United States,autism typically appears in the first three years of life andhinders social interaction and communication skills.
More studies that look at brain structure and functiontogether are needed to better understand how the minds ofautistic children work, Ashtari said, with the hope of devisingearlier intervention strategies to treat the condition.
"If more and more people truly prove that mirror neurons ingeneral are responsible and are involved in children withautism, then I believe more and more people will think, how dowe actually strengthen them? What can we do to make themactually work normally?" Ashtari said.
(Editing by Eric Beech)