Major brain structures implicated in autism.

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The article linked below is about the possibility of measuring brain patterns in babies to check for autism.  It’s an interesting idea.  What the scientists are saying is that there is a difference in the brain patterns of a normal baby making eye contact with you and an autistic baby making eye contact with you.  It goes along with one of the clinical signs of autism, which is lack of eye contact (and the non-verbal mannerisms or behavior that are associated).

Well, the study took 104 kids (6-10 month old) and measured their brain patterns.  The same study measured the same kids’ brain patterns at 3 years old.  Some of the autistic children were found to have different brain patterns than those of a normal, or undiagnosed child.

The good news is that doctors are looking for ways to diagnose autism earlier in children so that these cases can get special attention from an early age.  The bad news is that this study is small and that there was some unexplained brain behavior even in undiagnosed children.  Therefore, the study needs to be held on a larger scale and the data needs more accurate markers for interpretation to become definitive.

Anyhow, parents should be aware of how their children behave and note anything that seems unusual.  Consult a doctor or physician if anything seems out of the ordinary.  Please note that most cases of autism is diagnosed after the age of 2.

The link to the article I read:

http://news.yahoo.com/study-finds-early-signs-autism-baby-brains-170455953.html

I also remember reading a few daddy blogs with autistic kids.  Here are some links for the curious.  Here they are:

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