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6/5/09 8:07 Phildren's Neurobiological Solutions Foundation: Imaging study finds evidence of brain abnormalities in toddlers with autism

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Imaging study finds evidence of brain abnormalities in toddlers with autism

May 4, 2009

Source: JAMA and Archives JournalsToddlers with autism appear more likely to have an enlarged amygdala, a brain area associated withnumerous functions, including the processing of faces and emotion, according to a report in the Mayissue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. In addition, this brainabnormality appears to be associated with the ability to share attention with others, a fundamental abilitythought to predict later social and language function in children with autism.

"Autism is a complex neurodevelopmental disorder likely involving multiple brain systems," the authorswrite as background information in the article. "Converging evidence from magnetic resonance imaging,head circumference and postmortem studies suggests that brain volume enlargement is a characteristicfeature of autism, with its onset most likely occurring in the latter part of the first year of life." Based bothon its function an d studies of cha nges in its stru cture, the amygdala has been identified as a brain areapotentially associated with autism.

Matthew W. Mosconi, Ph.D., and colleagues at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill conducteda magnetic resonance imaging study involving 50 autistic children and 33 control children. Participatingchildren underwent brain scans along with testing of certain behavioral features of autism at ages 2 and

4. This included a measure of joint attention, which involves following another person's gaze to initiate ashared experience.

Compared to control children, those children with autism were more likely to have amygdalaenlargement both at age 2 and age 4. "These findings suggest that, consistent with a previous report of head circumference growth rates in autism and studies of amygdala volume in childhood, amygdalagrowth trajectories are accelerated before age 2 years in autism and remain enlarged during earlychildhood," the authors write. "Moreover, amygdala enlargement in 2-year-old children with autism isdisproportionate to overall brain enlargement and remains disproportionate at age 4 years."

Among children with autism, amygdala volume was associated with an increase in joint attention abilityat age 4. This suggests that alterations to this brain structure may be associated with a core deficit of autism, the authors note.

"The amygdala plays a critical role in early-stage processing of facial expression and in alerting corticalareas to the emotional significance of an event," the authors write. "Amygdala disturbances early indevelopment, therefore, disrupt the appropriate assignment of emotional significance to faces and socialinteraction." Continued follow-up of research participants, now under way, will help determine whether

amygdala growth rates continue at the same rate or undergo another period of accelerated growth or aperiod of decelerated growth in autistic children after age 4.

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