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Autistic Children May Have Too Many Neurons

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Chronos
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10 Nov 2011, 11:42 pm

And here I was thinking people needed more.

http://news.yahoo.com/autistic-children ... 19487.html



Apple_in_my_Eye
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11 Nov 2011, 12:20 am

So, if I start binge drinking or snorting acetone will I kill off those extra brain cells and become normal? (I guess head-banging could also work.) :lol:

It's interesting that too many brain cells could cause an area to function less well. I.e. executive functioning and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. And 79% more neurons seems like a dramatic, "robust" result.

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The autistic children had on average 67 percent more neurons -- a type of brain cell and a fundamental building block of the nervous system -- than boys without autism of a similar age.

Specifically, they found autistic children had 79 percent more neurons in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and 29 percent more in the mesial prefrontal cortex than other kids.

The prefrontal cortex is key to complex thoughts and behaviors, including language, social behavior and decision-making. The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is closely linked with "executive function," including planning, reasoning and "very high level cognition," said Lizabeth Romanski, an associate professor of neurobiology and anatomy at the University of Rochester Medical Center, who was not involved with the research. The mesial prefrontal cortex is thought to be important to social and other behavior and emotions.

While typically developing kids had about 1.16 billion neurons in the prefrontal cortex, autistic children had about 1.94 billion.

The study is published in the Nov. 9 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.



nirrti_rachelle
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11 Nov 2011, 12:31 am

.....So.....I have too much brain? I can handle that. 8)


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draelynn
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11 Nov 2011, 1:46 am

I am reserving my opinion of this study because the study size was so small... 9 post mortem examinations I believe. It gives them a new direction to look into - all prenatally.



Callista
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11 Nov 2011, 1:58 am

Apple_in_my_Eye wrote:
So, if I start binge drinking or snorting acetone will I kill off those extra brain cells and become normal? (I guess head-banging could also work.) :lol:
I'm guessing you're joking--but just for the record, no, it wouldn't work. It's not really the neurons that are important so much as the efficiency of the connections between them. What we've got are a lot of short-range connections, and not enough long-range ones; so killing off neurons wouldn't do anything but make your brain less efficient at thinking overall.

And yeah, n=9 is preliminary. You really want thirty or so, unless the effect you want to detect is truly huge.


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MakaylaTheAspie
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11 Nov 2011, 12:18 pm

:chin:

Too many brain cells? That explains quite a lot.


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fraac
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11 Nov 2011, 12:20 pm

Callista wrote:
What we've got are a lot of short-range connections, and not enough long-range ones


This is a supposition (from Uta Frith's group?) that isn't backed by experimental data.

'Too much' is obviously subjective. Do chimps have too few neurones?



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11 Nov 2011, 12:50 pm

I've often been described as neurotic


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TheWingman
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11 Nov 2011, 12:53 pm

Actually, it kindof make sense. Imagine that you install windows 95 on a computer with 2 gigahtz of processor. The software is going to work. But imagine that the computer has a conscience, it will want to do more, it will get very frustrated that the software is not more complex and it doesn't offer all the functionalities that it could to fit its actual power. Now if you replace the software by the culture and the computer by the brain, you have an autistic person.



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11 Nov 2011, 1:42 pm

Quote:
One question that needs to be explored is whether autistic brains generate more neurons, or if they have a malfunctioning "pruning" process, she said.

Interesting. Either way, having more neurons and/or enlarged brain might be just as desirable as having an enlarged heart (cardiomegaly) or liver (hepatomegaly). The structure of the brain (e.g. the length and/or number of the connections) might be suboptimal.


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Sweetleaf
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11 Nov 2011, 2:26 pm

Hmm intresting, when I was younger I actually did like to think I was more intelligent then most people because I could use more of my brain or something like that, it helped me get through those horrible days of having to go to school and be around a bunch of people who didn't like me.



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11 Nov 2011, 2:47 pm

Holy crap! 8O

You mean everyone that's been telling me I over think things is actually right?

Seriously though. If this turns out to be true, it may explain a lot of things, like why we may HAVE to over-process things. Maybe we have to in order to get the information through all those tangled neurons.


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11 Nov 2011, 3:39 pm

TheWingman wrote:
Actually, it kindof make sense. Imagine that you install windows 95 on a computer with 2 gigahtz of processor. The software is going to work. But imagine that the computer has a conscience, it will want to do more, it will get very frustrated that the software is not more complex and it doesn't offer all the functionalities that it could to fit its actual power. Now if you replace the software by the culture and the computer by the brain, you have an autistic person.


I like your analogy.



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11 Nov 2011, 7:48 pm

fraac wrote:
Callista wrote:
What we've got are a lot of short-range connections, and not enough long-range ones


This is a supposition (from Uta Frith's group?) that isn't backed by experimental data.

'Too much' is obviously subjective. Do chimps have too few neurones?


My understanding is that Dr. Lindsay Oberman's work has been confirming this.



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12 Nov 2011, 11:35 am

I knew it! Years ago, working in the insurance industry (which I learned is pretty evil), I thought I would be able to tolerate things if only I could get enough medication in my system, then when that didn't work, thought that maybe a lobotomy would. Instead, Happily, I just left the job.



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Deinonychus
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12 Nov 2011, 11:51 am

I knew it! Years ago, working in the insurance industry (which I learned is pretty evil), I thought I would be able to tolerate things if only I could get enough medication in my system, then when that didn't work, thought that maybe a lobotomy would. Instead, Happily, I just left the job.