Autism Linked With Too Many Brain Cells, Study Finds

Autism is linked with having too many neurons in the part of the brain responsible for communication, cognitive development and social skills, according to a new study. Researchers said the finding suggests autism may begin when the baby is still in the womb.

Researchers from the Autism Center of Excellence at the University of California, San Diego found that boys with autism had 67 percent more neurons -- called cortical cells, which are made before a baby is born -- than boys without autism. Their work was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

"An excess of brain cells was found in each child with autism that we studied," study researcher Eric Courchesne, Ph.D. said in a statement. "While we think that ultimately not every child with an autism disorder will show this, our study does suggest that an abnormal excess of cells may be quite common among children with autism. This is an exciting finding because, if future research can pinpoint why an excessive number of brain cells are there in the first place, it will have a large impact on understanding autism, and perhaps developing new treatments."

Because these extra cells are only made before the child has been born, the findings suggest that something had to have happened prenatally.

Researchers examined the postmortem tissue of the prefrontal cortexes of 13 boys -- seven of them had autism, six did not. They found that the children with autism had more cortical cells in this brain region, and also had heavier brains than the children without autism.

Lizabeth Romanski, an associate professor of neurobiology and anatomy at the University of Rochester Medical Center who was not involved with the study, told USA Today that typically in the second trimester of pregnancy, a healthy baby's neurons are supposed to be "pruned" and die off in order for the brain to properly develop.

It needs to be determined if an autistic baby's brain isn't properly "pruning" these neurons, or, if the brain just develops too many of the neurons, Romanski told USA Today.

Previously in 2003, researchers from UCSD found that being born with a small head circumference, followed by a rapid increase in head circumference before age 1, is linked with autism. That research was also published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2003.

Signs of autism can occur early in life -- even in infancy -- for some children, while for others, it's something that occurs suddenly after the child has been developing without any problems for months or years, the Mayo Clinic reported.

Comments

[Bill Haught]

11:38 AM on 01/05/2012

"Autism Linked With Too Many Brain Cells, Study Finds"

Just as numerous studies found that Negroes had too few only a few generations ago, studies by the same quakery profession that mistook problems caused by discrimination and marginalization as the actual problems. This time is different, as always.

[John Richard Smith]

09:42 PM on 12/27/2011

Corridors of migrating neurons in the human brain and their decline during infancy.
Sanai et al

Eli and Edythe Broad Institute of Regeneration Medicine and Stem Cell Research, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of California

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21964341

Here we find that the infant human subventricular zone and RMS contain an extensive corridor of migrating immature neurons before 18 months of age but, contrary to previous reports, this germinal activity subsides in older children and is nearly extinct by adulthood.

Surprisingly, during this limited window of neurogenesis, not all new neurons in the human subventricular zone are destined for the olfactory bulb--we describe a major migratory pathway that targets the prefrontal cortex in humans.

Together, these findings reveal robust streams of tangentially migrating immature neurons in human early postnatal subventricular zone and cortex.

These pathways represent potential targets of neurological injuries affecting neonates."

This is the danger of hyperbole and dare I say much 'hyperventilating' in autism research over a small study without balancing what other researchers are finding in other areas and other institutions.

It's a pity really because there are many aspects of autism that require a less prejudiced approach and scientific investigation. Which is inclusive of varying viewpoints.

[John Richard Smith]

09:49 PM on 12/27/2011

For instance a paper posted below Tufts University School of Medicine Boston has those researchers following an 'Allergic Response" hypothesis.

Paul Patterson and his team at California Institute of Technology is looking at immune system , infections in not only autism but schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders.

Laura de Magistris and colleagues at the Second University of Naples reported that 48% of 90 autism spectrum disorder (ASD) patients patients have GI problems, and that the incidence of increased intestinal permeability (“leaky gut”) is 8-fold higher in ASD patients than in controls.

Are all these various strands of research interconnected in some way ? Or are they aspects of differing pathways to a 'neurodevelopmental' disorder that is poorly defined as such ?

One of the fascinating aspects may well be that there is room for all.

[SkelDaddy]

09:55 PM on 12/26/2011

This headline is absurd. This would be akin to saying that exercise is associated with too many muscle cells.

Autism is a processing difference; it is only the neurotypical world that would assert such a thing. Those of us on the spectrum (PDD NOS, myself) might just as easily that neurotypicals don't have enough brain cells to understand this distinction.

[John Richard Smith]

04:34 AM on 12/23/2011

Autism and Gastroente­rology

Skeptiks " There is no unique GI disease or abnormalit­y in autism."

"A recent study by Dr. Brent Williams (et al) ... examining the deficiencies in intestinal gene expression and microbial dysbiosis that underlie the presence of GI problems in children with autism.

research team took ileal and cecal biopsies from 15 children with autism and GI problems and 7 children suffering only from GI problems . ... to identify the expression levels of various genes involved in carbohydrate digestion and transport.

The GI problems experienced in the two groups ... were similar with the majority suffering from food allergies...

Despite the similarities in GI problems between the groups of children, gene expression analysis indicated that...14 out of the 15 autistic children had deficiencies in expression

Changes in carbohydrate digestion and absorption due to deficiencies in gene expression are likely to influence the composition of the gut microbiome.

...autistic children had significantly lower abundances of Bacteriodetes, increases in the ratio of Firmicutes to Bacteriodetes, Betaproteobacteria.

...deficiencies in gene expression are likely to lead to maldigestion and malabsorption as well as microbial dysbiosis. "

-------------------------------------------------

Of Note

"There is also some evidence that in addition to causing GI problems, dysbiosis can have system-wide effects including alterations in immune responses and brain development and behavior."

John Walker-Smith - 1998

"we have noted important behavioural responses in several of the children when their intestinal pathology is treated."

[John Richard Smith]

08:27 AM on 12/23/2011

...and not to forget that basically the same research team found these results in their research.

Rgeression - 2008 -Cases had a high rate of CPEA-defined behavioral regression (loss of language and/or other skills following acquisition), 88%, compared to published rates of 20–40% for the general ASD population

Regression 2011 - 87% of AUT-GI subjects in our study had behavioral regression.

2008 - Onset of GI episodes and autism relative to MMR administration

Autism - 48% MMR before GI onset

Control - 23% MMR before GI onset

This significant difference suggests MMR triggered severe GI disease in some autistic children.

What then does this say when we take into account the evidence GI disease/ dysbiosis is associative with alterations in immune responses and brain
development and behaviour, also considering the large percentage of 'Regression'. (87-88%)

It is problematic and deserves further robust investigation.

[WhiteandNerdy]

07:02 PM on 12/26/2011

Skeptiks " There is no GI disease or abnormalit¬¬y in autism."

Wow, we all notice that you didn’t provide a single example of anyone that advocates such a position.

I find this use of the Straw-Man logical error very pathetic. Our children deserve much, much better.

Here are some much more useful links:
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/125/Supplement_1/S1.abstract?sid=13dee982-b258-4d91-af4d-9f3cd2ad79a4

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/125/Supplement_1/S19.abstract?sid=13dee982-b258-4d91-af4d-9f3cd2ad79a4

Anyone that bothers to read the free-full texts will see how hard it is to even determine correctly what % of kids with an ASD have GI disease.

Image that: actual science is messy and hard and can’t be done with a couple of cut/pastes.

W&N

[John Richard Smith]

08:23 PM on 12/26/2011

I have seen arguments that cover a range of viewpoints. I'm sure it is in the public interest, that the views expressed on both sides of this argument are objective as possible and are evidenced.

[John Richard Smith]

08:44 PM on 12/26/2011

You did notice the lead author ... Timothy Biue (one of Wakefield/ Walker-Smith strong critics)

"Evaluation, Diagnosis, and Treatment of Gastrointestinal Disorders in Individuals With ASDs: A Consensus Report"

"Recommendations for Evaluation and Treatment of Common Gastrointestinal Problems in Children With ASDs"

--------------------------------------------------------

Guess who just found a unique Gastroentestinal pathology in autistic children

Timothy Buie ...

Impaired Carbohydrate Digestion and Transport and Mucosal Dysbiosis in the Intestines of Children with Autism and Gastrointestinal Disturbances

"This caveat notwithstanding, our data show that at least some children with autism have a distinct intestinal profile that is linked to deficient expression of disaccharidases and hexose transporters, potentially promoting maldigestion, malabsorption, and multicomponent, compositional dysbiosis.

Although the underlying cause of these changes and the extra-intestinal effects these changes may elicit remain speculative, the identification of specific molecular and microbial signatures that define GI pathophysiology in AUT-GI children"

--------------------------------

This is what happens when the physiology of children is examined rather than the "blunt tool of epidemiology".

[John Richard Smith]

10:05 PM on 12/22/2011

More Commentary on Genetics and Skeptics.

National Institute of Mental Health - Director Thomas Insel

"In two separate studies of this same sample using different techniques, only about 8 percent of ASD children in simplex families had CNVs.

Add this number to the 8 percent with a mutation known to cause autism, such as Fragile X or tuberous sclerosis, and that still leaves more than 80 percent of ASD children with no evident genomic cause for their disorder.

Traditional estimates of the heritability of ASD range as high as 90 percent. It is quite possible that these heritability estimates were too high, but even if the heritability were less, as Scharff and Zoghbi noted in an essay that accompanied these three Neuron papers, “the results are humbling.”

Skeptiks and the Hidden Horde

"there are other numbers that cause continuing concern.

* The latest national prevalence figures from the CDC show that autism now affects 1 in 110 children, a 57% increase from the statistics released in 2007.1

* In California, the number of people receiving ASD services has increased 12-fold since 1987, according to their Department of Developmental Services."

[Taximom5]

10:16 PM on 12/22/2011

JRS, if the science doesn't point to autism being a genetic condition (and obviously, the science DOESN'T point to genetics), then can you explain why so many in the medical field insist that it is?

[John Richard Smith]

12:59 AM on 12/23/2011

Genetics will be involved but not the simple Gene A = Autism put forward by skeptiks.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/03/110323104737.htm

It will be more about genetic expression (epigenetics) and the interplay of environment. It won't be at one point of time either it will be a developmental continuum. Gender will play a role ...

It will involve differing systems and pathways in the autistic patient and will include not only the immune system, gene expression, signalling pathways, the microbiome, gastroenterology, neurodevelopment and varying environmental factors / triggers.

It could even mean looking at cutting edge science investigation such as epigentic inheritance ... have a look here and you'll see how complex it may become.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/05/090518111723.htm

It's fascinating how it is evolving when you can look beyond the blind prejudice of skepiks.

Don't deny other pathways in the development of autism the lesson from those humbling gene results applies equally to environmental factors.

[WhiteandNerdy]

06:51 PM on 12/26/2011

Better questions:

(1) why have none of your resources (sites/author etc) ever bother to explain such a simple concept as to how we know that autism has such a strong genetic component?

(2) given your interest in autism, why have you never bothered to look this up?

Obviously if a person had an honest interest they would at least be willing to look.

W&N

[John Richard Smith]

09:18 PM on 12/19/2011

The Skeptik Point of View.

I must admit it is time to examine the point of view as expressed by skeptiks on these and other forums.

1. Autism is genetic.

Response : Best evidence so far indicates that genetics plays a 45 / 55 (UCLA 2011 research) split with environment. With only a very small percentage actually confirmed as being part of a genetic 'cause' ... Professor Sir Michael Rutter estimates it as somewhere around 11% including gene deletions. That's after some 40 years of genetic research.

What is far more likely and being robustly evidenced is the role of genes and environment.

2. The Hidden Horde

There is a population of unidentified "Autism" patients ie Hidden Horde.

Response : There is no robust research that shows that there is a hidden horde numbering between 1 - 2% of the general population. There is some agreement that as we become more aware of autism, diagnosis will uncover more children, but this does not account for the rest of the growth. (UCLA).

Nor does it explain how paediatricians and other health professionals 'missed' diagnosing a rather large cohort of children. In the UK up to 7000 children per annum. The US birth cohort is some 4,000,000 that's between 40,000 to 50,000 undiagnosed.

[John Richard Smith]

09:26 PM on 12/19/2011

3. Autism starts before birth.

Response : Some evidence genetic 11% that autism begins before birth. The neuroanatomy is inconclusive at this stage. Previous research has shown aberrant brain growth in other areas associated with autism beginning after birth.

"Here's We all know that autism is a neurodevelopment disorder. It begins very early in life. The first symptoms may be subtle, especially in the first year. The second year is usually when we see a variety of red flags displayed in kids who go on to develop autism."

Eric Courchesne ... and further

"John Morgan has done to my mind the first (and so best) statistical and quantitative analysis of postmortem tissue, looking very precisely at parameters involving glial-neuron interactions and neuron-neuron interactions. His studies demonstrate that there is an age-related change in the autistic brain across the years from ages two to forty, that there is an increase in the relatively haphazard arrangements of neurons within the autistic frontal cortex."

Even if we were to take the statement "Autism starts before Birth" at face value, that in itself does not mean that many other factors do not change / alter or even ameliorate the autism pathology.

What we do understand is that the aetiology and the continuum are very complex.

[John Richard Smith]

10:08 PM on 12/19/2011

4. Immune system Dysfunction

Skeptiks like this one "This has been repeated so often that it has become an article of faith among some groups."

Response : "Groups" like scientists at UCLA / Johns Hopkins etc etc ..I'll sum it up here.

"This is consistent with the paper by Dan Geschwind and colleagues at UCLA that I consider to be the gold standard of gene network analysis in autism brains (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21614001).

In that paper, Dan found that the specially expressed genes in autism fell into two groups, one having to do with synapses and neuronal function, and the second having to do with glia and immune function. This place immune function once more at the heart of autism gene network activity."

[N0NDescript0]

11:12 AM on 12/20/2011

JRS said:

"Even if we were to take the statement "Autism starts before Birth" at face value, that in itself does not mean that many other factors do not change / alter or even ameliorate the autism pathology."

That is certainly true, but just because other factors are capable of changing or altering the path of ASD, does not in any way negate the emerging evidence that neurological changes resulting in ASD occur en utero.

To claim that brain changes occurring between ages 2 and 40 is evidence against en utero initiation of autism is just ridiculous and ignorant. The human brain is constantly changing, from birth to death. This is not a unique feature to ASD patients.

[N0NDescript0]

11:08 AM on 12/20/2011

JRS said:

"Nor does it explain how paediatric­ians and other health profession­als 'missed' diagnosing a rather large cohort of children."

Diagnosing a disease requires that the physician knows the combination of symptoms that indicate the disease. The symptoms and definition of ASD has changed over the years, most recently with the publication of the DSM IV in 1994. Physicians are also more likely to be aware of a disease and it's symptoms if the disease because "popular" (i.e. the general public becomes more aware of it).

Without a *large* database of detailed medical records, you can not ever claim that it's impossible to explain the rise in ASD diagnoses due in part to raised awareness of it's symptoms.

Your claim is just factually and logically flawed.

[John Richard Smith]

07:37 PM on 12/20/2011

"Diagnosing a disease requires that the physician knows the combinatio­n of symptoms that indicate the disease."

Certainly ... paediatricians whose area of expertise is childhood disease and disorders are very familiar with Autism. The core symptoms of autism are quite unique and not easily missed or misdiagnosed by experts.

"The symptoms and definition of ASD has changed over the years ..."

I haven't seen any significant change to core symptoms in Autism that would bolster your argument.

"Physicians are also more likely to be aware of a disease and it's symptoms if the disease because "popular" (i.e. the general public becomes more aware of it)."

I'd certainly disagree that paediatricians are driven in their diagnoses by public opinion / awareness. They have very strong medical evidenced based procedures that they follow.

"Without a *large* database of detailed medical records, you can not ever claim that it's impossible to explain the rise in ASD diagnoses due in part to raised awareness of it's symptoms. "

I couldn't follow this last sentence. I acknowledged in Point 2 that some small growth is attributable to 'awareness'. What I have shown is that dismissing expert paediatric assessment is problematic to the skeptik point of view.

I haven't seen anything in your arguments presented that changes that.

[Taximom5]

10:08 AM on 12/12/2011

It's also fascinating to note that not one parent of a child who had a serious reaction to a vaccine--whether resulting in autism or not--has ever stepped forward and said that vaccines are safe.

Isn't it ridiculous that the only people saying that vaccines are safe are people who either
1) have never seen a serious reaction to a vaccine in their own family and therefore assume that nobody else could be reacting to one
or
2) paid respresentatives of the pharmaceutical industry.

It's rather like having parents of children who are NOT allergic to peanuts say that peanuts are perfectly safe, with paid representatives of the peanut industry insisting that parents of peanut-allergic children are confusing correlation with causation, and funding study after study showing all the children who do NOT react to peanuts.

[Robert Nix]

07:27 PM on 12/12/2011

I hope no one dies because of something you write.

"That was in 2003. In the eight years since, theories of vaccine-autism causation have been debunked repeatedly and publicly. And as a result, I’ve resumed vaccinating all three of my children, including my son with autism. "

http://www.impatientoptimists.org/posts/2011/05/after-the-debunking-autism-parents-have-their-say

[Taximom5]

10:25 PM on 12/12/2011

Apparently, you are unaware of the science that DOES show a vaccine-autism link:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16264412
Mercury and autism: accelerating evidence?
Mutter J, Naumann J, Schneider R, Walach H, Haley B.
Source
Institute for Environmental Medicine and Hospital Epidemiology, University Hospital Freiburg, Germany. [e-mail]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21058170
Findings suggest that U.S. male neonates vaccinated with the hepatitis B vaccine prior to 1999 (from vaccination record) had a threefold higher risk for parental report of autism diagnosis compared to boys not vaccinated as neonates during that same time period. Nonwhite boys bore a greater risk.

There is more--lots more--science showing a vaccine-autism link, but perhaps you'd like to read a bit about the politics behind the anti-safety movement:

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2005/07/01/autism_mercury_and_politics/
Autism, mercury, and politics
By Robert Kennedy Jr. | July 1, 2005

MOUNTING EVIDENCE suggests that Thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative in children's vaccines, may be responsible for the exponential growth of autism, attention deficit disorder, speech delays, and other childhood neurological disorders now epidemic in the United States.

[WhiteandNerdy]

08:50 PM on 12/12/2011

The only thing remarkable is that after all this time you have never even bothered to figure out what the word safe means.

It is rather exactly a case of the vaccines cause autism crowd being marginalized to posting on the Net--and making things up about people--because they have nothing rational to support their POV.

W&N

[Taximom5]

10:04 AM on 12/12/2011

Eventually, it will be found that autism in many cases is caused/triggered by vaccines. The thousands of children who had vaccine-induced seizures, and regressive autism, with symptoms correlating to date of vaccination, are part of the subgroup whose autism is clearly tied to vaccines.

The United States Government has already admitted and compensated hundreds of such cases--only in those cases, the lawyers were careful to call the autism "brain damage." Which is what it really is, anyway.

It's a shame that the pharmaceutical industry is putting so many resources into blocking this from public view. If they didn't do so, we could start finally pre-screening the kids to find the ones who are at risk for such reactions--and we could then look at the kids with "non-regressive" autism, and figure out what else might be a factor for those kids (though vaccines may very well be a factor for those kids as well, with a different onset and presentation).

[WhiteandNerdy]

09:00 PM on 12/12/2011

No,

Autism is a developmental error that starts during embryonic development.

Thanks for the irony--all this time and you still haven't bothered to learn the science behind the HP article that you are commenting on.

Good news: the courts do care enough to look at the science.

Even thought the anti-vaccs try to hide the facts, the gross ethical/scientific misconduct and fraud by the anti-vaccs is a matter of public record and the lawsuits from abused parents have started. Things are looking bad for the anti's...

W&N

[ConfuciusSay-]

12:42 AM on 12/05/2011

Eventually the causes of autism will be found.

It won't be the vaccines.

Let's just hope that it leads us to some kind of effective treatment and relief for the afflicted, and their caregivers. These people have suffered enough.

[Taximom5]

10:24 PM on 12/08/2011

They've already found that vaccines have caused seizures, brain damage, INCLUDING AUTISM, lupus, MS, asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, narcolepsy, Guillain-Barre syndrome, acute flaccid paralysis, and other devastating conditions.

Anyone can read the studies on PubMed showing this.

[Heather XW]

10:57 PM on 12/08/2011

No press, no worries.

[WhiteandNerdy]

04:07 PM on 12/10/2011

Here is Pubmed:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/

What this blog clearly show is that the anti-vaccs simply are unable or unwilling to get even the most basic facts correct--much less string together a coherent argument.

Which is exactly why they are still marginalized to yelling on the Net.

W&N

[sdtech]

08:24 AM on 11/25/2011

Regarding Taximom5’s comment earlier that “vaccine companies, who hire medico/legal ‘shills’ to post in forums for a salary… have a LOT to lose.”

“Thousands of Texas doctors, researchers and medical experts — including more than 100 who are employed by the state and are paid with taxpayer dollars — routinely supplement their salaries with income from pharmaceutical companies….State records show that of the 74 doctors and psychiatrists statewide who have routinely prescribed the highest number of costly antipsychotic drugs to patients on Medicaid, the joint state-federal health insurance program for the disabled, children and the very poor, 10 received payments from drug companies in 2009-11 — from $11,000 to $180,000 each.”

See “Payments to Doctors by Pharmaceutical Companies Raise Issues of Conflicts” at

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/25/us/payments-to-doctors-by-pharmaceutical-companies-raise-issues-of-conflicts.html?hpw

[WhiteandNerdy]

09:46 PM on 11/25/2011

Thank you for the very helpful posting.

Notice the contrast?

Legitimate industry works with people with relevant expertise, in a legal manner, under ethical guidance.

The pattern with the anti-vaccs is very different. They use people without the necessary expertise, and they act in illegal/unethical manners for their own personal profits.

There are numerous examples posted below.

Thanks for reminding us of this difference.

W&N

[sdtech]

11:28 PM on 11/26/2011

WhiteandNerdy, you said: "Legitimate industry works with people with relevant expertise, in a legal manner, under ethical guidance."

But this reference NYT article is about unethical and illegal kickbacks for scrips. Sort of like Boehner handing out tobacco money on the US House floor.

As Eugene Smith said in 1975 "The morality that pollution is criminal only after legal conviction is the morality that causes pollution."


W. Eugene and Aileen Smith, Minamata: The Story of the Poisoning of a City, and of the People Who Chose to Carry the Burden of Courage, 1975.

[WhiteandNerdy]

08:13 PM on 11/21/2011

2 of 2

Finally, to remove any possible doubt, there is long section of selective editing/misinformation through the comments.

Where a simple fact
Cortical neurons only grow during embryonic development--is edited out to neurons.

Which is then followed by some snarky comments about how other neurons can sometime grow after birth.

And not a single person cared enough about the truth to point that a classic bait-and-switch had occurred and that AoA readers are being grossly deceived.

But then anyone that actually reads the paper and follows all the references would come to the conclusion that autism starts in utero. Can't have parents reading the facts, now can we?

W&N

[John Richard Smith]

02:13 AM on 11/22/2011

...and your argument is that misreporting doesn't happen ...where ? The Sunday Times , Fox News , The Washington Post.

Welcome to Journalism 101.

But can you fill in some of the blanks from your own reporting.

What validated diagnostic tool did they use for autism diagnosis ?

What was the similar (anti-psychotic) drug ?

Were they matched to actual "brain" controls or to mean statistical weight ?

How were the 'autism' brains selected ? (Most recent reviews of epidemiology estimate a prevalence of one to two cases per 2,000 people for autism, and about six per 1,000 for ASD)

[WhiteandNerdy]

07:43 AM on 11/22/2011

No,

Everyone/every organization makes mistakes.

The differences are:

1. Most people acknowledge and are willing to correct important errors. AoA does not.

2. Most news organizations make some reasonable effort at getting the facts correct. E.g. asking scientists about science. AoA doesn't.

3. The selective quoting is so common and the exact same error is made so many times in this one entry that a reasonable person would have to conclude that it isn't an accident--they are deliberately deceiving the readers. Especially since this error changes such and important fact about the work--a fact that is contrary to everything AoA argues.

In other words, the nature, frequency, and AoA's response to their errors is completely different from any legitimate source.

The diagnosis were made with ADI-R. The answers to your questions are right in the text--I have already given you the exact places to look.

You should try reading studies before commenting on them. Helps if you have the facts.

W&N

[WhiteandNerdy]

08:12 PM on 11/21/2011

1 of 2
How can it get any clearer than this?

Here is a hatchet job on the study from AgeofAutism:

http://www.ageofautism.com/2011/11/autism-speaks-courchesne-brain-study-not-worth-sacrificing-our-children-further/comments/page/1/#comments

Here is their analysis of the paper:

"There were no aged matched controls!"
Wrong, the controls are age-matched (table 3) and there is a lengthy section entitled "Age-Based Normative Mean Brain Weights" (page 2002).

"2 of the 7 “ASD” children did not even have an official ASD diagnosis!"
Fact, all the children were diagnosed with a validated method (page 2004). Note, none of the kids had Aspergers or PD NOS (page 2004).

"5 of the 7 ASD kids were on anti-psychotic drugs."
Wrong again. 1 was on an anti-psychotic and 1 was on a similar drug (table 2).

"1 of the control children had been taking Concerta and klonopin. Another control had had an organ transplant and was on immunosuppressive drugs for lengthy periods of time. There are only 5 controls not, as far as we know, on various prescription drugs."

Besides, getting the names of the drugs wrong, they missed the important point that none of the kids (controls or tests) took any drugs that affect the number of neurons.

The AoA crew fails a basic reading test.

W&N

[John Richard Smith]

06:29 PM on 11/19/2011

Autism Linked with to Many Brain Cells

On the face of it this study although small , quite robust seems to indicate that at least to some degree autism may be related to aberrant neuronal development whilst the fetus is developing in the mother's womb. This is emphasised by the implication that cortical cells only develop at this time.

This then points to an underlying genetic cause of autism and it would be no surprise to find that. It's always been part of the evidence.

But it does rather raise some interesting points as does all Autism research.

Here's a previous study by Eric Courchesne University of California

"Recent studies have now shown that abnormal brain overgrowth occurs during the first 2 years of life in children with autism.

By 2–4 years of age, the most deviant overgrowth is in cerebral, cerebellar, and limbic structures that underlie higher-order cognitive, social, emotional, and language functions.

Excessive growth is followed by abnormally slow or arrested growth.

Deviant brain growth in autism occurs at the very time when the formation of cerebral circuitry is at its most exuberant and vulnerable stage, and it may signal disruption of this process of circuit formation.

The resulting aberrant connectivity and dysfunction may lead to the development of autistic behaviors."

----------------------------------------------------------------

So the first question to ask is are the excess cortical only found at this time ?

Is there a direct causative role in autism ?

Is the assumption that this is a negative aspect correct?

[John Richard Smith]

07:24 PM on 11/19/2011

Other Interesting Points.

Further evidence in 2011 from University of California researchers undertaking the most comprehensive investigations of Autism phenotypes found this ...

55 per cent of the risk for having autism in this study was attributed to shared environmental factors.

"Researchers from the University of California Davis's MIND Institute in Sacramento began the Autism Phenome Project in 2006. They have been studying the brain growth, environmental exposure and genetic make-up of 350 children aged between 2 and 3 1/2 years, and have so far found two biologically distinct subtypes of autistic brain development."

"One group of children - all boys - had enlarged brains and most had regressed into autism after 18 months of age; another group appeared to have immune systems that were not functioning properly."

This new and comprehensive study has discovered there are different biological types of autism, with genetics, the immune system and the environment all thought to be factors in causing the varied forms..

In ... "biological terms there are different types of autism, but they all have similar symptoms."

Professor Tonge Emeritus Psychiatry Professor

"Currently, a number of people are also looking for other possible environmental contributing factors, and the interaction between the environment and a person's immune system might be an interesting possibility there."

[John Richard Smith]

08:07 PM on 11/19/2011

"Many, many people now are trying to figure out whether all of these various biological causes are focusing on one final common pathway. "

Dr David Amaral University of California

Well that may have been evidenced by once again 2011 research in regards to NFkB and gene expression.

"Incorrect regulation of NF-κB has been linked to cancer, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, septic shock, viral infection, and improper immune development. NF-κB has also been implicated in processes of synaptic plasticity and memory."

Researchers have found association between NFkB and other central immune signalling pathways and highly expressed genes in autism.

NFkB seems to be that common pathway.

"Strikingly, immune signaling through NFκB, Tnf, and Jnk was central to ASD networks at multiple levels of our analysis, and cell-type specific expression suggested glia—in addition to neurons—deserve consideration. This work provides integrated genomic evidence that ASD-implicated genes may converge on central cytokine signaling pathways."

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Aberrant NF-KappaB Expression in Autism Spectrum Condition: A Mechanism for Neuroinflammation 2011

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3098713/

Expression Profiling of Autism Candidate Genes during Human Brain Development Implicates

Ziats at Plosone gives the complete study

(Needs to be googled as link does not work directly)

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Three hypotheses -

exogenous (external / environmenatal) factor(s) stimulate neuro-inflammation during development

autoimmune activation causes ASD pathology

mutations described in ASD result in aberrant signaling regulation of immune cells during neurodevelopment.

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Or as University of California research implies it could be all three ?

[Christian Cullen]

09:42 PM on 11/17/2011

So the Autism vaccine is Vodka?!?

[kauthon]

03:58 PM on 11/17/2011

Ill, that's disgusting.