Thalamic Volume and Neural Connectivity in Autism
Ish Bhalla reported at the 57th Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) in October 2010 that children with autism have greater thalamic volume than normal controls. Other posters presented at the meeting showed that patients with autism spectrum disorders have connectivity abnormalities, with increased connectivity of neurons to other nearby neuronal groups and decreased connectivity of neurons to areas of the brain at a greater distance.
Editor’s Note: These findings echo reports that the corpus callosum, the main structure connecting neurons across the two hemispheres of the brain, is smaller in autism. In addition, other investigators have reported abnormalities in cortical column structure in autism.
Interestingly, the findings of increased volume and altered connectivity may even be reflected in measurements of brain and head size. A substantial literature supports the observations that children with autism have greater initial head size and growth of their heads compared with the normal infant population.
Comments
Leave a Reply
