14 DAY TRIAL // Scientists with the School of Medicine at Stanford University and the San Diego State University found in two recent studies that the brains of people suffering from autism exhibit far more numerous neural connections than those of healthy individuals.
Researchers are only now beginning to understand why this happens. The two new papers, published in a recent issue of the journal Cell Reports, suggest that children with the highest number of neural connections are also those who exhibit the most severe autism symptoms.
Previously, scientists have suggested that autism is produced, among other factors, by a lack of proper neural connections in the human brain. The new research argues that this view may have been held in error, PsychCentral reports.
“We demonstrate that the brains of children with autism are hyper-connected in ways that are related to the severity of social impairment exhibited by these children,” says Stanford expert Kaustubh Supekar, PhD, a member of the research group.
The papers also reveal an interesting potential avenue for treating autism, which is giving patients the same type of pills used to treat epilepsy. More research is needed to understand if this course of treatment will work.