Brain Growth and Autism

The average ages by which a child is diagnosed with autism are three and four. However, autism is supposedly found much earlier than the ages of three and four. The explaination for this is that the growth of a child's brain may lead to autism. Scientists have found that children with excessive brain growth tend to have more serious cases of autism. Eric Courchesne, director of the Autism Center of Excellence at the University of California, San Diego and his colleague Cynthia Schumann may have helped support this hypothesis. Their data has suggested that autism starts as soon as the first year of life, or possibly sooner.

Using MRI scans, they found excessive growth in austistic subjects as young as one and half years old. When they reached two and a half years old, the subject's brains were about 7% larger than that of an average child. The researchers hope that this testing will allow them to see the correlation between brain growth and autism. This may help them treat autism at a younger age for patients. The patients will be able to receive therapy as soon as possible.

This aritcle relates to biology because autism is a type of disorder. By studying autism we will be able to give those will autism treatment. We should care because such treatment may help make the lives of those with autism easier. This may be stressing to many families, and helping their children with this order may mean alot to them. I believe they placed this article in the newspaper to show advancements in autism research and treatments.

Source: Westly, Erica. "Too Much, Too Young". Scientific American Mind August 2010: 11-11.