VITAL SIGNS: PATTERNS
VITAL SIGNS: PATTERNS; Autism and Brain Growth Studied
By Eric Nagourney
Published: July 30, 2002
Two new studies report that from an early age, the brains and heads of autistic children develop differently from those of other children.
But researchers said it was unclear what, if anything, might be learned from the findings.
In separate studies appearing in the current issue of Neurology, Dr. Stephen R. Dager and Dr. Elizabeth H. Aylward, both of the University of Washington School of Medicine, found that brain growth in autistic children was more rapid in early years.
Among the 3- and 4-year-old autistic children they examined, Dr. Dager and his colleagues found cerebral volumes that were on average 10 percent larger than they were in children with typical brain development.
Dr. Aylward and her colleagues also found that the brains grew abnormally quickly among young autistic children but that the growth slowed around age 12, just as the brains of children who are not autistic generally experience spurts of growth.
An accompanying editorial said that no one had ever demonstrated a connection between brain size and brain function, and argued that until research methods were improved, ''the observations of slight variations in parts of the brain remind the casual observer of phrenology.''