Gray Matter May Lend Insight into Brains of Autistic Children

Autistic children have more gray matter in areas of the brain that control observational learning and social processing according to a study conduted at the Fay J. Lindner Center for Autism, North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System in Bethpage, N.Y., and presented at the Radiological Society of North America on Wednesday. Gray matter is traditionally linked with high IQ, but in autistic children it seems to be malfunctioning according to researchers.

"Our findings suggest that the inability of autistic children to relate to people and life situations in an ordinary way may be the result of an abnormally functioning mirror neuron system," said Manzar Ashtari, Ph.D., from the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania, who was lead author of the study.

A mirror neuron is located in the brain and is activated when a person is experiencing an emotion or sensation or completing an action. It also functions similarly when a person watches another person complete any of these tasks.

While the mirror neuron was first identified in monkeys, researchers have long believed and identified indications that human brains function in a similar manner. This functioning might explain while most can learn by seeing instead of doing and well as the common human emotion of empathy.

For autistic children, the results of the study indicate that larger amounts of gray matter were present in the area of the brain known for its mirror neurons. By using a new method of identifying gray matter, researchers were able to detect subtle chances within the brain.

The researchers found that it children who were not autistic, high levels of gray matter were associated with a higher IQ. However, they saw no coorelation between IQ and gray matter in children who were autistic.

"In the normal brain, larger amounts of gray matter are associated with higher IQs," Dr. Ashtari said. "But in the autistic brain, increased gray matter does not correspond to IQ, because this gray matter is not functioning properly."

However, lower amounts of gray matter in the area of the brain with mirror neurons were connected with lower scores on tests that measured social interaction and reciprocity, indicating that the gray matter still had some affect on the brain of an autistic child.

"Impairments in these areas are the hallmark of autism spectrum disorders, and this finding may lead to greater understanding of the neurobiological underpinnings of the core features of autism," said study co-author Joel Bregman, M.D., medical director of the Fay J. Lindner Center for Autism.

Source:

Radiological Society of North America, "Novel imaging technique shows gray matter increase in brains of autistic children", Eurekalert