Brain development in autism: Early overgrowth followed by premature arrest of growth

被引:198
作者
Courchesne, E
机构
[1] Childrens Hosp, Res Ctr, Ctr Autism Res, La Jolla, CA USA
[2] Univ Calif San Diego, Sch Med, Dept Neurosci, La Jolla, CA 92093 USA
来源
MENTAL RETARDATION AND DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES RESEARCH REVIEWS | 2004年 / 10卷 / 02期
关键词
autism; brain growth; development; neuroimaging; head circumference; MRI; postmortem;
D O I
10.1002/mrdd.20020
中图分类号
R74 [神经病学与精神病学];
学科分类号
摘要
Due to the relatively late age of clinical diagnosis of autism, the early brain pathology of children with autism has remained largely unstudied. The increased use of retrospective measures such as head circumference along with a surge of MRI studies of toddlers with autism, have opened whole new area of research and discovery. Recent studies have now shown that abnormal brain overgrowth occurs during the first 2 years of life in children with autism. By 2-4 years of age, the most deviant overgrowth is in cerebral, cerebellar, and limbic structures that underlie higher-order cognitive, social, emotional, and language functions. Excessive growth is followed by abnormally slow or arrested growth. Deviant brain growth in autism occurs at the very time when the formation of cerebral circuitry is at its most exuberant and vulnerable stage, and it may signal disruption of this process of circuit formation. The resulting aberrant connectivity and dysfunction may lead to the development of autistic behaviors. To discover the causes, neural substrates, early-warning signs and effective treatments of autism, future research should focus on elucidating the neurobiological defects that underlie brain growth abnormalities in autism that appear during these critical first years of life. (C) 2004 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
引用
收藏
页码:106 / 111
页数:6
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