Brain Changes Suggest Autism Starts In The Womb

[Agnosticsherbet]

Brain Changes Suggest Autism Starts In The Womb
The symptoms of autism may not be obvious until a child is a toddler, but the disorder itself appears to begin well before birth.

Brain tissue taken from children who died and also happened to have autism revealed patches of disorganization in the cortex, a thin sheet of cells that's critical for learning and memory, researchers report in the New England Journal of Medicine. Tissue samples from children without autism didn't have those characteristic patches.

Organization of the cortex begins in the second trimester of pregnancy. "So something must have gone wrong at or before that time," says Eric Courchesne, an author of the paper and director of the Autism Center of Excellence at the University of California, San Diego.

The finding should bolster efforts to understand how genes control brain development and lead to autism. It also suggests that treatment should start early in childhood, when the brain is capable of rewiring to work around damaged areas.

This should help drown the already discredited research of Andrew Wakefield that somehow convinced so many people to refuse to vaccinate their children.

[xchrom]

1. du rec.

[cthulu2016]

2. Ahhhhh... so vaccinating the MOTHER is the problem

<kidding!>

[RainDog]

3. I was vaccinated just before I got pregnant

For german measles. Then I was traveling with my husband. Then I had a birth control failure. Then I found out I was pregnant. Now that I know more about autism, it was apparent my son was high functioning autistic from shortly after he was born.

I don't agree with the anti-vaxers, but I've always wondered about that moment.

[LeftishBrit]

4. k&r. Important study.

[liberal_at_heart]

5. I remember taking my son to the dentist one time and I asked about the discoloration on his teeth.

The dentists said there was likely some sort of disruption in growth while the teeth were forming. That always made me wonder if there was some sort of connection to his autism and some sort of disruption during the pregnancy. I had pre term labor about mid way through and was on medication. I've always wondered if the pre term labor or the medication could have disrupted the pregnancy.