Kids are awesome. What goes on in the mind of a child will, in many ways, always be a mystery to grown-ups. What we do know is that children are full of wonder, imagination, simple joy, purity, and innocence. Their brains are bristling with intrigue, questions, and worldviews waiting to be formed.
But not all brains are wired the same way.
According to a study published in Autism Research in September by the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York, children with autism have “different” brains than kids without autism, all the way down to the structure and density of their neurons.
Neuron density is the number of neurons in a specific area of the brain. Research has shown that differences in neuron density can affect cognitive function and behavior.
The first author of the study, Dr. Zachary Christensen, said in a statement, “People with a diagnosis of autism often have other things they have to deal with, such as anxiety, depression, and ADHD. But these findings mean we now have a new set of measurements that have shown unique promise in characterizing individuals with autism.”
Roughly 1 in 36 children have autism spectrum disorder, according to data on 8-year-olds collected in 2020 by the CDC.
According to the CDC study, the condition is nearly four times more common in boys than in girls. However, research on autism in girls and adults is still evolving.
People with autism often face challenges with social interaction and communication. They may prefer sticking to routines and habits and can become overwhelmed by sensory stimuli, such as bright lights, loud noises, and uncomfortable clothing.
For the study, neuroscientists analyzed brain imaging data from over 11,000 children aged 9 to 11 to examine neuron structures. They compared images of nearly 150 children with autism to those of almost 9,000 without neurodevelopmental diagnoses and more than 1,400 with psychiatric disorders like anxiety or ADHD but not autism.
The research found that children with autism have a lower density of neurons in the cerebral cortex, which plays a crucial role in memory, learning, reasoning, and problem-solving. Interestingly, in other areas of the brain, such as the amygdala, which is associated with processing emotions and emotional reactions, there was an increased density of neurons in the brains of children with autism.
Neuroscientists found that the trends in children with autism are unique, even in the presence of other psychiatric conditions, concluding that these differences are, indeed, specific to autism.
“If characterizing unique deviations in neuron structure in those with autism can be done reliably and with relative ease, that opens a lot of opportunities to characterize how autism develops, and these measures may be used to identify individuals with autism that could benefit from more specific therapeutic interventions,” Dr. Christensen said.
“We’ve spent many years describing the larger characteristics of brain regions, such as thickness, volume, and curvature,” explained Dr. Christensen. “However, newer techniques in the field of neuroimaging for characterizing cells using MRI [magnetic resonance imaging] unveil new levels of complexity throughout development.”
The University of Rochester neuroscientists used data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study database, the largest long-term study of brain development and child health in the United States.
“We are at the beginning of understanding the true impact that the extraordinary data collected by the ABCD study will have on the health of our children,” said John Foxe, senior author of the study and the director of the Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience, in the same statement.
“It is truly transforming what we know about brain development as we follow this group of children from childhood into early adulthood.”
With all that we know about the brain, it’s humbling to realize just how much we still can’t comprehend. This marks another step along the path toward understanding the incredible complexity of the fearfully and wonderfully designed creatures that we are!
Sources:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/aur.3239
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S105381191930010
https://www.urmc.rochester.edu/news/publications/neuroscience/research-finds-neurons-look-different-in-children-with-autism
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/72/ss/ss7202a1.htm?s_cid=ss7202a1_w
https://abcdstudy.org/