Kerri Smith The blobs appeared 20 years ago. Two teams, one led by Seiji Ogawa at Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey, the other by Kenneth Kwong at Massachusetts General Hospital in Charlestown, slid a handful of volunteers into giant magnets. With their heads held still, the volunteers watched flashing lights or tensed their hands, while the research teams built the data flowing from the machines into grainy images showing parts of the brain illuminated as multicoloured blobs. The results showed that a technique called functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) could use blood as a proxy for measuring the activity of neurons — without the injection of a signal-boosting compound1, 2. It was the first demonstration of fMRI as it is commonly used today, and came just months after the technique debuted — using a contrast agent — in humans3. Sensitive to the distinctive magnetic properties of blood that is rich in oxygen, the method shows oxygenated blood flowing to active brain regions. Unlike scanning techniques such as electroencephalography (EEG), which detects electrical activity at the skull's surface, fMRI produces measurements from deep inside the brain. It is also non-invasive, which makes it safer and more comfortable than positron emission tomography (PET), in which radioactive compounds are injected and traced as they flow around the body. fMRI has been applied to almost every aspect of brain science since. It has shown that the brain is highly compartmentalized, with specific regions responsible for tasks such as perceiving faces4 and weighing up moral responsibility5; that the resting brain is in fact humming with activity6; and that it may be possible to communicate with patients in a vegetative state by monitoring their brain activity7. In 2010, neuroscientists used fMRI in more than 1,500 published articles (see 'The rise of fMRI'). © 2012 Nature Publishing Group

Keyword: Brain imaging
Link ID: 16611 - Posted: 04.05.2012

Researchers have turned up a new clue to the workings of a possible environmental factor in autism spectrum disorders (ASDs): fathers were four times more likely than mothers to transmit tiny, spontaneous mutations to their children with the disorders. Moreover, the number of such transmitted genetic glitches increased with paternal age. The discovery may help to explain earlier evidence linking autism risk to older fathers. The results are among several from a trio of new studies, supported in part by the National Institutes of Health, finding that such sequence changes in parts of genes that code for proteins play a significant role in ASDs. One of the studies determined that having such glitches boosts a child’s risk of developing autism five to 20 fold. Taken together, the three studies represent the largest effort of its kind, drawing upon samples from 549 families to maximize statistical power. They reveal sporadic mutations widely distributed across the genome, sometimes conferring risk and sometimes not. While the changes identified don’t account for most cases of illness, they are providing clues to the biology of what are likely multiple syndromes along the autism spectrum. All three teams sequenced the protein coding parts of genes in parents and an affected child – mostly in families with only one member touched by autism. One study also included comparisons with healthy siblings. Although these protein-coding areas represent only about 1.5 percent of the genome, they harbor 85 percent of disease-causing mutations. This strategy optimized the odds for detecting the few spontaneous errors in genetic transmission that confer autism risk from the “background noise” generated by the many more benign mutations.

Keyword: Autism; Epigenetics
Link ID: 16610 - Posted: 04.05.2012

By Bruce Bower New federal data indicate that 1 in 88 U.S. children had autism or other autism spectrum disorders in 2008, up from 1 in 110 kids in 2006 and 1 in 150 in 2002. Although that’s a worrisome trend, reasons for autism’s rising prevalence — measured in nonrepresentative national samples of 8-year-olds — remain unclear. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta released the latest autism figures on March 30. CDC researchers used health records, educational records or both to identify children with autism spectrum disorders in parts of 14 states. Data for more than 38,000 kids were consulted. “Such a big increase in autism spectrum disorders in such a short time seems a little odd, and there’s a lot of noise in these data,” says psychiatrist Fred Volkmar of the Yale Child Study Center in New Haven, Conn. Some of the clatter stems from divergent diagnostic and record-keeping practices across states and school districts, Volkmar says. Children with various learning problems sometimes get labeled with autism spectrum disorders to receive special education services, he adds. Rates of autism spectrum disorders fluctuated markedly from one state to another, the CDC reports. Prevalence ranged from 21.2 cases for every 1,000 children in Utah to 4.8 cases for every 1,000 kids in Alabama. © Society for Science & the Public 2000 - 2012

Keyword: Autism
Link ID: 16609 - Posted: 04.05.2012

By Erica Westly Millions of patients benefit from opioids such as morphine and codeine, but the pain relief they provide often comes with intense itching. In some cases, the irritation is so bad that patients will opt to cut back on painkillers. Now a study in the October 14 issue of Cell has found a possible explanation—the first step to creating drugs that will not make patients choose between experiencing itchiness and pain. Until recently, many experts had assumed that itching from opioids was unavoidable because it is a common side effect of drugs that interact with the nervous system. The brain has four main types of receptors that respond to opioids, and every type has many structural variants, called isoforms. Most opioids are nonspecific, which means they bind to all the isoforms. This leads to powerful pain relief, although scientists do not know exactly why. In the new research, a team led by itch researcher Zhou-Feng Chen of Washington University in St. Louis showed that only one opioid receptor isoform is responsible for itching—and it is not involved in pain. Mice bred to have fewer of these particular receptors did not scratch themselves when given an opioid, but they did exhibit the telltale mouse signs of pain relief, such as less flinching when researchers flicked their tails. Now that scientists know that pain relief and itching can be decoupled, they will try to make itch-free opioid drugs a reality. © 2012 Scientific American

Keyword: Pain & Touch
Link ID: 16608 - Posted: 04.04.2012

By Laura Sanders CHICAGO — As any high school senior staring down the SAT knows, when the stakes are high, some test-takers choke. A new study finds that activity in distinct parts of the brain can predict whether a person will remain cool or crumble under pressure. The results, presented April 1 at the annual meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, offer some great new clues that may help scientists understand how the brain copes with stressful situations, says psychologist Thomas Carr of Michigan State University in East Lansing. “Sometimes you come across a study you wish you'd done yourself,” he says “This is such a study.” In the study, Andrew Mattarella-Micke and Sian Beilock, both of the University of Chicago, had volunteers perform math problems, some easy, some hard, while undergoing a functional MRI scan. These two-step calculations were designed to tap into a person’s working memory: Participants had to hold an intermediate number in mind to correctly calculate the final answer. After volunteers had performed about 25 minutes of low-stakes math, the researchers ratcheted up the pressure. Participants were told that their performance had been monitored the whole time, and if they improved, they would get 60 bucks instead of the 30 they had been promised. In addition to raising the financial stakes, the researchers added social pressure, too. They told volunteers that if the participants failed to improve, a teammate would lose money. © Society for Science & the Public 2000 - 2012

Keyword: Attention
Link ID: 16607 - Posted: 04.04.2012

By James Gallagher Health and science reporter, BBC News The obesity problem in the US may be much worse than previously thought, according to researchers. They said using the Body Mass Index or BMI to determine obesity was underestimating the issue. Their study, published in the journal PLoS One, said up to 39% of people who were not currently classified as obese actually were. The authors said "we may be much further behind than we thought" in tackling obesity. BMI is a simple calculation which combines a person's height and weight to give a score which can be used to diagnose obesity. Somebody with a BMI of 30 or more is classed as obese. The US Centers for Disease Control says at least one in three Americans is obese. Many more? Other ways of diagnosing obesity include looking at how much of the body is made up of fat. A fat percentage of 25% or more for men or 30% or more for women is the threshold for obesity. One of the researchers Dr Eric Braverman said: "The Body Mass Index is an insensitive measure of obesity, prone to under-diagnosis, while direct fat measurements are superior because they show distribution of body fat." BBC © 2012

Keyword: Obesity
Link ID: 16606 - Posted: 04.04.2012

By Laura Sanders CHICAGO — A brain zapping technique helps people recover language after a stroke, new research shows. The results may point to a better way for people to relearn how to talk after a brain injury. “I think this work is very promising,” said cognitive neuroscientist Roi Cohen Kadosh of the University of Oxford. The study, presented April 2 at the annual meeting of Cognitive Neuroscience Society, represents one of the first attempts to successfully apply brain stimulation techniques to a clinical population, he said. Speech therapist and neuroscientist Jenny Crinion of University College London and collaborators focused on people who had trouble finding the right word after a stroke. Known as anomia, the condition is frustrating, leaving people unable to call the correct word to mind. Crinion and her colleagues paired a word-training technique with brain stimulation. The training regimen was intense. In the lab and at home, participants studied 150 cards with pictures of one-syllable words of everyday objects: cat, bed, car and so on for a total of about 60 hours over six weeks. Three days a week, six volunteers came into the lab to receive a type of electrical brain stimulation known as transcranial direct current stimulation. Volunteers received the stimulation, which doesn’t seem to cause pain or any ill effects, while training on the vocabulary words. Seven volunteers received a sham treatment without stimulation. © Society for Science & the Public 2000 - 2012

Keyword: Stroke; Language
Link ID: 16605 - Posted: 04.04.2012

By Scicurious One of the interesting things about this paper is that it highlights to me how different the perspectives on a specific data set can be when you’re coming from two different fields. These scientists are coming from the field of cognition and decision making, whereas I come from a field of pharmacology and drug abuse. While I think the data are equally interesting, it makes me think of very different things than they talked about in their discussion. To me, that’s a sign of just how different our readings in the field can be. The authors of this article were coming at this study from the perspective of studies in choice and decision making. They were interested in finding a model of choice and decision making in rats that better mimics the way humans make decisions. In particular, they are interested in the amount of effort that it takes to achieve a goal. This has important clinical implications for changes that take place in depression or traumatic brain injury, where you sometimes see dramatic changes in motivation in humans. To look at this, they had rats perform a modified cognitive task. In the task, the rats were given a choice between an easy and a hard task, and they could press a lever indicating which task they wanted. After the lever press, they had to watch a series of 5 lights. One of the lights would light up. If the rat correctly pressed his nose into the area under the lit up light, he got a sugar pellet. In the easy task, the light was on for a little while, but in the hard task, it was on for a short time, so the rat had to pay closer attention. But if he chose the hard task and completed it successfully, the rat got double the reward. © 2012 Scientific American,

Keyword: Drug Abuse; Attention
Link ID: 16604 - Posted: 04.04.2012

By Karen Weintraub On a recent Sunday, while Walt was baking gluten-free cookies, his mother had to remind him to check the recipe, put the eggs away, and close the refrigerator door. But he navigated the oven and timer just fine, and carefully used a spatula to shift the warm cookies from the baking sheet to the cooling rack. A few minutes later, after a quick, reassuring hug, the 16-year-old resumed the scrapbook he had started that morning, printing out pictures of his favorite Theodore Tugboats, trimming them to fit, and labeling each one. “I did so awesome,’’ he said excitedly when he was done. He piled five of the now-cool cookies onto a plate, hurried off into another room, and crooned Christmas carols to calm himself down. Life with Walt alternates between moments of enthusiasm and anxiety, scowls and spontaneous hugs, typical teenage behavior and younger-than-his-age interests. Diagnosed with autism as a preschooler, Walt went through years of temper tantrums, diarrhea, skin scratching, unpredictable behaviors, and obvious physical pain. A few minutes spent at his airy Groton home reveal both that Walt, now 5 feet 6 inches tall, is not a typical teenager, and that he and his family - including two siblings not on the autism spectrum - manage his challenges with good nature, warmth, and lots of humor. Like many parents of autistic children, Walt’s mother, Sarah Connell has often been ahead of his doctors and caregivers in coming up with new ways to help him. © 2012 NY Times Co.

Keyword: Autism
Link ID: 16603 - Posted: 04.04.2012

By Linda Carroll Karen Melville remembers when her son Danny was diagnosed with autism so severe that his doctor feared he might never even talk, much less go to school. “It was like a freight train hit,” said Melville, a 39-year-old mother of two who lives in Brunswick, Ohio. Five years of intensive therapy have paid off. Danny, now age 7, is OK’d to go to school next year in a mostly mainstream class that will have a total of three “high functioning” kids with autism. “Now when he finds something he thinks is really cool on the computer -- like a humpback whale swimming -- he wants to show me,” Melville said. Danny may be one of what researchers are now calling “bloomers” – kids who start out as severely affected but who manage to grow beyond most of their symptoms. About 10 percent of children who are severely affected by autism at age 3 seem to have “bloomed” by age 8, leaving behind many of the condition’s crippling deficits, a new study shows. And while these “bloomers” still retain some of autism’s symptoms, like the tendency to rock back and forth when stressed or to repeat the same behavior over and over, they become what experts dub, “high functioning,” according to the study published today in Pediatrics. That means their social skills and their ability to communicate have vastly improved. A child at the low end of the communication scale might not be able to talk, or even to make any sounds, explained the study’s lead author Christine Fountain, a postdoctoral fellow at Columbia University. Those at the other end of the scale “would have a broad vocabulary, understand the meaning of words and use them in appropriate contexts, understand the meaning of story plot and carry on complex conversations,” she explained. © 2012 msnbc.com

Keyword: Autism
Link ID: 16602 - Posted: 04.04.2012

by Alison George Going bananas. Laughing your head off. Phrases that aren't literally true make no sense if you have autism, like Michael Barton Why do people with autism, like yourself, find the English language so confusing? Autistic people think in black and white and therefore interpret everything literally. Ordinary people seem to love using idioms, metaphors and figurative speech, whether to aid communication or simply to make life more interesting, whereas for autistic people they simply make no sense. Tell me about the time your teacher told you to "pull your socks up". I bent down and did just that. Of course the teacher got annoyed and thought I was being cheeky. This is a common problem with children on the spectrum and it is important that teachers understand that the student is simply obeying instructions. At junior school my pencil broke, so the teacher asked me to see if there were any in the cupboard. When I returned, pencil-less, she said "Were there any? " and I said "Yes, lots". What if you saw a sign saying "Passengers are to remain seated at all times"? I have learned that if a sign seems bizarre, it probably doesn't mean what it says, so I watch what other people do. If they are all ignoring the sign by standing up and leaving the bus, then I can assume the sign wasn't meant to be taken literally. What goes through your mind when you hear expressions like "It cost him an arm and a leg?" or "I gave him a piece of my mind"? © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Autism
Link ID: 16601 - Posted: 04.04.2012

By DAVID EWING DUNCAN SAN DIEGO — Already surrounded by machines that allow him, painstakingly, to communicate, the physicist Stephen Hawking last summer donned what looked like a rakish black headband that held a feather-light device the size of a small matchbox. Called the iBrain, this simple-looking contraption is part of an experiment that aims to allow Dr. Hawking — long paralyzed by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s disease — to communicate by merely thinking. The iBrain is part of a new generation of portable neural devices and algorithms intended to monitor and diagnose conditions like sleep apnea, depression and autism. Invented by a team led by Philip Low, a 32-year-old neuroscientist who is chief executive of NeuroVigil, a company based in San Diego, the iBrain is gaining attention as a possible alternative to expensive sleep labs that use rubber and plastic caps riddled with dozens of electrodes and usually require a patient to stay overnight. “The iBrain can collect data in real time in a person’s own bed, or when they’re watching TV, or doing just about anything,” Dr. Low said. The device uses a single channel to pick up waves of electrical brain signals, which change with different activities and thoughts, or with the pathologies that accompany brain disorders. © 2012 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Robotics; ALS-Lou Gehrig's Disease
Link ID: 16600 - Posted: 04.04.2012

By John Horgan I met Christof Koch in 1994 at the first of series of big conferences on consciousness held in Tucson, Ariz. A professor at Caltech, Koch had helped popularize consciousness as a topic for serious scientific investigation—instead of windy philosophical supposition—through his collaboration with the great Francis Crick, who had already cracked the genetic code and now wanted to solve the riddle of mind as well. In Tucson Koch outlined a theory, jointly fashioned by him and Crick, that 40-hertz brain waves might be a key to consciousness. Although I was skeptical of that particular theory, I liked the hard-nosed, materialist, reductionist approach that Koch and Crick took toward consciousness. I also liked the quirky intensity that Koch brought to his scientific work. This trait was on display in Tucson during an encounter between Koch and the philosopher David Chalmers, who proposed that consciousness is such a “hard problem” that it needs new approaches, such as one incorporating ideas from information theory. Confronting Chalmers at a cocktail party, Koch declared that Chalmers’s information-based theory of consciousness was untestable and therefore useless. “Why don’t you just say that when you have a brain the Holy Ghost comes down and makes you conscious!” Koch exclaimed. Such a theory was unnecessarily complicated, Chalmers responded dryly, and it would not accord with his own subjective experience. “But how do I know that your subjective experience is the same as mine?” Koch retorted. “How do I even know you’re conscious?” © 2012 Scientific American

Keyword: Consciousness
Link ID: 16599 - Posted: 04.04.2012

By SANDRA BLAKESLEE If you wear a white coat that you believe belongs to a doctor, your ability to pay attention increases sharply. But if you wear the same white coat believing it belongs to a painter, you will show no such improvement. So scientists report after studying a phenomenon they call enclothed cognition: the effects of clothing on cognitive processes. It is not enough to see a doctor’s coat hanging in your doorway, said Adam D. Galinsky, a professor at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, who led the study. The effect occurs only if you actually wear the coat and know its symbolic meaning — that physicians tend to be careful, rigorous and good at paying attention. The findings, on the Web site of The Journal of Experimental Social Cognition, are a twist on a growing scientific field called embodied cognition. We think not just with our brains but with our bodies, Dr. Galinsky said, and our thought processes are based on physical experiences that set off associated abstract concepts. Now it appears that those experiences include the clothes we wear. “I love the idea of trying to figure out why, when we put on certain clothes, we might more readily take on a role and how that might affect our basic abilities,” said Joshua I. Davis, an assistant professor of psychology at Barnard College and expert on embodied cognition who was not involved with the study. This study does not fully explain how this comes about, he said, but it does suggest that it will be worth exploring various ideas.

Keyword: Attention
Link ID: 16598 - Posted: 04.04.2012

By Gary Stix Our current understanding of how the brain works often borrows from observations of the anomalous patient. The iron rod that penetrated Phineas Gage’s head made the once emotionally balanced railroad foreman impulsive and profane. But it gave neurologists clues as to the role of the brain’s frontal lobes in exercising self-control. The epilepsy surgery that removed Henry Molaison’s hippocampus opened a whole new line of research about memory. Still, conclusions about mental processes from single patients arrive freighted with unavoidable risk. Neuroscientists can’t replicate what they find in neurologically damaged patients by removing a frontal lobe or hippocampus from other research subjects without planning for significant downtime in a state or federal prison. That means that what we think we learn from an initial examination of a Gage or a Molaison may be less than meets the eye. The cautionary lessons of single-case neuroscience were underlined in a recent paper in Neuropsychologia by Marc Himmelbach and two colleagues at the Hertie-Institute for Clinical Brain Research, part of Eberhard Karls University in Tübingen, Germany. The team took another look at the well-known case of D.F., a woman who suffered brain damage more than 20 years ago from carbon monoxide. D.F.’s entry into the case history annals came about because, as a result of her injuries, she could not recognize everyday objects, a condition called visual agnosia, yet she was still able to grasp them. © 2012 Scientific American

Keyword: Vision; Learning & Memory
Link ID: 16597 - Posted: 03.31.2012

CBC News Having sleep apnea may be associated with major depression, a new study suggests. Research from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests that obstructive sleep apnea, a disorder in which a person has short pauses in breathing during sleep, may be connected to depressive symptoms. Caused by a temporary collapse of the airway, these breathing stops can last 10 to 30 seconds, and may occur dozens or hundreds of times each night. Risk factors include: Advancing age. Being male. Being obese. "Snorting, gasping or stopping breathing while asleep was associated with nearly all depression symptoms, including feeling hopeless and feeling like a failure," Anne Wheaton, lead author of the study, said in a release. "We expected persons with sleep-disordered breathing to report trouble sleeping or sleeping too much, or feeling tired and having little energy, but not the other symptoms." The study of 9,714 adults from across the U.S. was conducted between 2005 and 2008. It is in the April issue of the Journal Sleep. © CBC 2012

Keyword: Sleep
Link ID: 16596 - Posted: 03.31.2012

Sandrine Ceurstemont, editor, New Scientist TV Don't worry, the mesmerising swirls in this video won't hypnotise you. But once the moving pattern disappears, you may be surprised when a ghostly spinning spiral appears before your eyes. The illusion was accidentally discovered by game designer Hjalmar Snoep while he was creating an animation late at night. "I realised that the after-image that appeared wasn't part of the animation," he says. "I've never come across a moving after-image even though I have collected lots of optical illusions, so it piqued my interest." After-image effects are caused by the overstimulation of photoreceptors in the eyes after staring at an image for a long time. Typically, they take on the original shape, often appearing in its complementary colours. But a recent study by Hiroyuki Ito from Kyushu University in Japan showed for the first time how an after-image can vary in shape as well as hue. Ito is now studying moving after-image illusions, since they aren't easy to explain with existing theories. After viewing Snoep's animation, he suggests that the averaged or accumulated retinal exposure to light over the clip's duration could cause the spiral after-image. "The hypothesis could be tested by calculating the averaged luminance for each pixel during the viewing period," he says. "It's a splendid demonstration as entertainment, as well as from a scientific point of view." © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Vision
Link ID: 16595 - Posted: 03.31.2012

Sumit Paul-Choudhury, editor LOOKING at your own brain is a humbling and slightly unnerving experience. Mine, depicted in a freshly acquired MRI scan, is startlingly intricate, compact - and baffling. This is as much of a portrait of my own mind as I am ever likely to see. But to my ignorant eyes (which, by way of an eerie bonus, are now looking at their own cross-sections) it looks pretty much like any other brain. Apparently a more expert eye wouldn't help. "Whilst all my participants get very excited about seeing their brain for the first time after being scanned, and I frequently get asked 'What can you tell me about my brain?', the reality is that the brain will for a long time yet remain a mysterious mass," says the neuroscientist who scanned my brain, for research purposes. "We must be content with knowing that the 'I' is constructed in its intricacies, but we cannot explain how.” The hope of closing the gap between the physical and mental is presumably what gets neuroscientists up in the morning, but it’s frustrating for a layperson like me. Avowed materialist though I am, I nonetheless rebel against the knowledge that the impassive blob on screen is "me". This cognitive dissonance was what I took with me to the opening of Brains, a new show at London’s Wellcome Collection, whose subtitle, "The Mind as Matter", suggests that its curators sympathise with my materialist perspective. “The neurosciences hold out the prospect of an objective account of consciousness - the soul or mind as nothing more than intricately connected flesh,” reads the introduction. But the bulk of the exhibition is dedicated to whole brains, brain collectors and anatomical paraphernalia, with little explicit reference to the brain’s fine structure, or how it might give rise to thought. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Consciousness; Attention
Link ID: 16594 - Posted: 03.31.2012

By Patricia Wen, Globe Staff The number of children identified as having an autism spectrum disorder in the United States is soaring, with roughly 1 in 88 being found to have this condition, according to a study released Thursday morning by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The new figure reflects a 23 percent increase compared with the autism rate the public health agency released two years ago. During a conference call with reporters, CDC officials acknowledged widespread concern among parents about why the numbers have grown so much. They said increased detection is clearly a major factor driving up the rates, though agency research is being conducted to see what other factors -- genetics or the environment -- play a role. Typically characterized by verbal delays, repetitive behaviors, and social struggles, autism is five times more common among boys than girls -- with 1 in 54 boys identified, according to the new study. It is also found more commonly in white children than black and Hispanic children. Previous reports have shown that autism is one of the few developmental disabilities in which children from higher socio-economic backgrounds are more likely to be identified. But in the new study, the researchers point out that much of the increase in identification of autism spectrum disorder in recent years came from minority communities. The largest rises were among Hispanic and non-Hispanic black children, as well as among children whose autism diagnosis did not include intellectual disability. © 2012 NY Times Co.

Keyword: Autism
Link ID: 16593 - Posted: 03.31.2012

Erin Allday When her son was diagnosed with a rare chromosome defect three years ago, it was something of a relief for Theresa Mahar. Finally, she had an explanation. Christopher, now 14, had obvious developmental delays and intellectual disabilities. He had behavior problems and struggled in school. He'd been assigned so many diagnoses over the years - almost all of them related to autism - that it was sometimes hard to keep up. Then a genetic test revealed the defect to chromosome 16 - one of the 23 chromosomes that make up every person's DNA - and it explained, perhaps, the cause of Christopher's autism. "It's something to hold on to," Theresa Mahar said. "It's something to blame." Mahar and her family came to San Francisco from Hillsboro, Ore., this week to participate in an unusual study at UCSF - to map in great detail the brains of people who have a defect to chromosome 16. The study is one of the first in which autism researchers are narrowing their focus into one of the few known causes of the disorder. That's important, scientists say, because autism is such a difficult condition to define - the symptoms can vary widely from patient to patient, and the causes are often impossible to determine. Different mechanisms Autism may be a collection of similar conditions, rather than one single disorder, researchers say. That means that studying patients with autism as it's now defined often produces mixed results - the brain scan of a child with one genetic cause of autism may look very different from the scan of an autistic child with no genetic cause. © 2012 Hearst Communications Inc.

Keyword: Autism; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 16592 - Posted: 03.31.2012