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Autism Support Network reports
As a baby's brain develops, there is an explosion of synapses, the connections that allow neurons to send and receive signals. But during childhood and adolescence, the brain needs to start pruning those synapses, limiting their number so different brain areas can develop specific functions and are not overloaded with stimuli.
Now a new study suggests that in children with autism, something in the process goes awry, leaving an oversupply of synapses in at least some parts of the brain.
[...]
The study, published [August 21] in the journal Neuron, involved tissue from the brains of children and adolescents who had died from ages 2 to 20. About half had autism; the others did not.
The researchers, from Columbia University Medical Center, looked closely at an area of the brain's temporal lobe involved in social behavior and communication. Analyzing tissue from 20 of the brains, they counted spines -- the tiny neuron protrusions that receive signals via synapses -- and found more spines in children with autism.
The scientists found that at younger ages, the number of spines did not differ tremendously between the two groups of children, but adolescents with autism had significantly more than those without autism. Typical 19-year-olds had 41 percent fewer synapses than toddlers, but those in their late teenage years with autism had only 16 percent fewer than young children with autism.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by SlimmPickens on Tuesday September 02 2014, @10:12PM
I remember seeing a video about an autistic savant who was very good at math. He equated numbers with physical attributes. He looked at a very tall building and said "It's very seven"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 03 2014, @08:16AM
That's the thing is it cause or effect? Or kind of both... Maybe the brains of autistic people find some things a lot more interesting than normals do and so those synapses don't get trimmed.
There's at least one autistic person who feels as if her legs are on fire, ants crawling up her arms etc: http://abcnews.go.com/2020/MindMoodNews/story?id=8258204 [go.com]
(Score: 2) by tathra on Wednesday September 03 2014, @08:37AM
thats just a type of synesthesia, [wikipedia.org] which is basically just crossed wiring in the brain (connections that shouldnt really exist, like colors linked to shapes, or numbers link to tastes). its not really anything specific to autism, but going by this article autistics would be more likely to be synesthates (or maybe this means autism is a type of synesthesia? i'm not sure how synesthesia could result in an inability to interpret social signals though).
(Score: 2, Interesting) by sea on Wednesday September 03 2014, @11:54AM
I'm always fascinated by this sort of thing.
Is it possible that somehow his brain independently discovered some fundamental property of the number seven that relates it with that particular building, or 'tallness' in general?
We know that mathematics has surprising and incredibly intimate connections with the rest of the world, though we don't know why, and we haven't even discovered one tiny iota of those connections. For all we know, the concept of 'tallness' may in all seriousness be embodied in some sense by the number 7, or at least strongly related to it.