Study by Eric Courchesne et al :
Article Brain Growth Across the Life Span in Autism: Age-Specific Ch...
It explains in detail what happens to autists brain during the development. And it seems like that Frontal cortex starts to develop too quickly and then after that development almost stops at around age 7-11.
So in a nutshell if that "damage" abnormality happens at around that age you might end up with an individual with impaired ability to distinguish right and wrong (in some degree). Same with autists choosing more often the easy way rather than harder one. Thirdly autists have difficulties with regulating their behavior. And all those things are linked to frontal cortex... I wonder if there is some sort of connection....
Hi,
Here are some references:
Donovan AP, Basson MA. The neuroanatomy of autism - a developmental perspective. J Anat. 2017 Jan;230(1):4-15. doi: 10.1111/joa.12542
Yizhar O, Fenno LE, Prigge M, Schneider F, Davidson TJ, O'Shea DJ, Sohal VS, Goshen I, Finkelstein J, Paz JT, Stehfest K, Fudim R, Ramakrishnan C, Huguenard JR, Hegemann P, Deisseroth K. Neocortical excitation/inhibition balance in information processing and social dysfunction. Nature. 2011 Jul 27;477(7363):171-8. doi: 10.1038/nature10360
Kurochkin I, Khrameeva E, Tkachev A, Stepanova V, Vanyushkina A, Stekolshchikova E, Li Q, Zubkov D, Shichkova P, Halene T, Willmitzer L, Giavalisco P, Akbarian S, Khaitovich P. Metabolome signature of autism in the human prefrontal cortex. Commun Biol. 2019 Jun 21;2:234. doi: 10.1038/s42003-019-0485-4
Holmboe K, Elsabbagh M, Volein A, Tucker LA, Baron-Cohen S, Bolton P, Charman T, Johnson MH. Frontal cortex functioning in the infant broader autism phenotype. Infant Behav Dev. 2010 Dec;33(4):482-91. doi: 10.1016/j.infbeh.2010.05.004.
Carper RA, Courchesne E. Localized enlargement of the frontal cortex in early autism. Biol Psychiatry. 2005 Jan 15;57(2):126-33. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2004.11.005
Interesting, so there's a significant physical difference. With so much speculation over the years it's nice to see the explanation.
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