Scientists say they have new evidence that autism begins in the womb. Bhismadev Chakrabarti, Associate Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Reading who is researching autism, provides comment on this new study
Release Date 27 March 2014
A new study has raised hopes that better understanding of the brain may improve the lives of children with autism.
Bhismadev Chakrabarti, Associate Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Reading who is researching autism, said:
"The fight against autism hinges on our understanding the underlying neurobiology. Differences in how neurons connect to and communicate with each other have been shown to distinguish brains of those people with autism from those without. If we can pinpoint the point at which this differences in neural connections arise, then that would provide the first step to designing effective interventions.
"Previous studies have shown that neurons are more tightly packed in the frontal cortex of people with this condition. This study points to another potential mechanism through which differences in the pattern of neural connections may arise. Discrete patches of the cortex, especially in prefrontal and temporal lobes show clear signs of disorganisation. This is broadly consistent with a body of work, including work from our group, suggesting atypical connectivity of the frontal cortex with the rest of the brain in individuals with autism.
"However, the technique used by this group to identify how cells are organised in postmortem brains is susceptible to noise due to the unstable nature of molecules that are measured. These molecules (called mRNAs) degrade quickly after a person dies, and these do not degrade uniformly across all brain regions. To ensure that these results are not due to an irregular breakdown of mRNA, this work needs to be replicated, including the use of other techniques, to test if such 'disorganised' patches of the cortex is a feature found widely in autism."