For years, doctors and medical researchers have known that pregnant mothers are at greater risk for hypertension (high blood pressure), diabetes, and obesity. All of these risk factors are greatly impacted by pregnancy, and these conditions serve to cause great harm to both fetus and mother during gestation, and beyond. Now comes an intriguing study which suggests that in addition to known health problems resulting from these conditions such as stroke, diabetic shock and coma, heart attacks, and other medical problems, children born to these mothers may well be at greater risk of autism.
Researchers at UC Davis have uncovered major differences in the brain development of affected children. Namely, these individuals show an abnormally fast growth rate in the frontal cortex areas of the brain. For years, scientists have observed decreased brain activity coming from these areas in affected individuals, but they now have histological evidence corroborating their findings. Scientists hypothesize that overactive growth rate is responsible for misfires in the neural net, leading to a lack of proper functioning.
Functional MRI scans, or fMRI have shed further light on these findings. Using these techniques, scientists are able to see cross sections of the brain in vivid detail, without causing harm or distress in an individual suffering from autism. Recent advances in medical technology have made it possible to observe brain function on levels never before possible, and may well hold the secret to unraveling even more of autism’s mysteries.
It’s no secret that rates of autism have been rising steadily over the past few decades. While some of this is attributed to better defined diagnosis criteria, and part of it may well be catching children who may have escaped attention in an earlier era, this is not the full explanation. Of course, one should never assume correlation implies causation, but it is interesting that both obesity rates and autism have exploded in prevalence during the same time period.