Guest guest Posted August 22, 2006 Report Share Posted August 22, 2006 re: The article on gray matter/ Dr. Dager Do Dager and University of Washington School of medicine, receive funding from NIMH or NAAR? NAAR is listed as one of the sources....Suzanne REAACH here is more information, if you scroll down to the end you will see something very interesting....one of the soruces for this was Shih, Director of Research and Programs, for NAAR THE RESEARCH HERE CLEARLY STATES THAT GRAY AREA ABNORMALITY COULD BE INFLAMMATORY , AND THERE ARE HIGHER LEVELS OF CYTOKINES, AND FEWER NEURONS IN GRAY MATTER....looks like this may have come from a NAAR publication I would very much like to know what our researchers think about this. the NAAR connection makes me wonder...... will this research be led down a contradictory past, as was done with the Burbacher study? it is in the Neurology Publication will have to work on this to find complete write up.....inflammation, from my layperson's understanding, is key in autism and auto-immunity reactions to toxins, etc..... this is yet another insidious area of damage the gut is one, the brain another as our kids get older, more of them will be " undiagnosed " by manistream with the following words " your child has some markers for several diseases, (RA MS Lupus, CFS, Dermatomyositis, etc) but does not fit any one completely and it will be a long time before we know " this is where i am with one of mine ...but i know where they are blind, and am pursuing and involved with dr's from our community) I READ MANY MANY POSTS FROM, PARENTS OF ASD KIDS, WHO ARE ALSO DIAGNOSED WITH UNKOWN, SOMETIMES KNOWN, METABOLIC/MITOCHONDRIAL DISORDERS....THEY ARE.DEVELOPING THESE TYPES OF “NEW” DISEASES. THIS REALLY IS THE WRITING ON THE WALL FOR MANY CHILDREN AFFECTED, AND WHAT I AM HEARING FROM MANY OF THESE VERY DEVASTATED PARENTS IS “The doctors can’t help me, the doctors don’t know, the doctors are getting tired of my questions” The connection to toxins, etc must be made more available to the public; outreach and grassroots organized SCIENTIFIC presentations are critical. am concerend about their dismissal of the pruning, etc hypothesis and would very much like to know how our scientists feel suzanne SEARCH: · · o 14 to GO on Your Cell Phone § 14toGO on Your Cell Phone § 14toGO Podcasts o 14wfie.com RSS Information o 14 On Your Desktop o Make 14wfie.com Your Home Page o La Palabra Latina...Our Spanish Language Content Partner o School Closing Alert Sign Up o News/Video on My · o 14 News Sunrise § Dan Katz' Sunrise Web Log § Sunrise Traffic § The Next Sunrise Chef! § Birthdays! § House Call § Byron's School Visits o Top Video Clips o 14 WFIE Viewer Video...Share Yours Today! o Newswatch Blogs § Dan Katz' Sunrise Web Log § Chief Meteorologist Jeff Lyons § Lucy Listens § Hardison's Blog § Check Out The Forums On 14wfie.com! § Kerry Corum's Blog o Tri-State's Most Wanted o Nightmare In November: Complete Coverage o 14 WFIE Daily Headlines o Stefanie Silvey Investigates § Stefanie's Death Penalty Series § Monte Doss...Case Closed! § Unsolved Crimes · o Severe Weather Alerts o Get Weather Sticker for Your Site! o WX Radio S.A.M.E. 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The finding, published in the Aug. 22 issue of Neurology, confirms some earlier reports and conflicts with others. Dr. Dager, of the University of Washington School of Medicine, and his colleagues compared 60 autistic children to 16 children with developmental delay and 10 children with typical development. They used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans to measure the transverse relaxation (T2) of gray and white matter in the children's cortexes. This measures how much water is moving around inside brain tissue, and it gives clinicians an indirect way to measure brain maturation. The researchers found the autistic children had differences in the gray matter of their brains compared to the children with typical development. A number of studies has suggested the brains of younger children with autism are 10 percent larger, Dager explained. This new research honed in on tissue chemistry and found the abnormality wasn't due to lack of " pruning, " which is how the normal developing brain rids itself of unnecessary neurons. The abnormality is " clearly not accelerated brain growth. An alternative hypothesis could be inflammatory processes. Our data would be consistent with adult studies that found higher levels of cytokines, associated with inflammation, in postmortem studies, " he explained. A popular current theory is that autistic children have more rapid brain growth that plateaus at the age of 5 or 6. " We didn't find evidence for that, just the opposite, in fact, " Dager said. " The processes that go along with brain maturation were slower in the autistic brains, particularly in gray matter. " The finding is " tantalizing, " said Shih, director of research and programs at the National Alliance for Autism Research. " This is one of the first attempts to differentiate beyond volumetric difference to really look at what's behind those differences. " The field, he explained, has been " intrigued by reports last year that suggest a model of autism could be premature development or unchecked brain growth leading to disorganized circuitry. The thinking was, synaptic pruning didn't occur, so that noise became predominant over signal itself. " But Dager's study suggests gray matter development in autism involves the same volume as normal brains, but fewer neurons. " The convergence of evidence now seems to suggest a model in which gray matter abnormality could be inflammatory. T2 measures water molecules, and the findings here suggest there's more water in these kids' brains..., " Shih explained. The differences in gray matter were found only in the brains of autistic children, while both gray and white matter differences were found in the brains of children with learning delays. For children with learning delays, the findings suggest slowed neuronal development is to blame, while autistic children have a different kind of neuronal development abnormality, possibly induced by inflammation. Gray matter consists of the brain's neurons, while white matter is the brain's wiring system. Another important finding, that gray matter seems to be affected differently in autism, supports earlier research. " There's evidence of connectivity problems at older ages; in younger ages, it seems gray matter is problematic. Autism is a developmental problem and evolves as people age, " he noted. Autism affects up to one in every 175 school-age children, according to a recent study from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The government researchers also found that boys are nearly four times more likely to be diagnosed with autism than girls, and Hispanic parents were slightly less likely than non-Hispanic whites to report a child with autism, although this may be due to cultural or other factors, including access to medical care. In the end, the findings only add another piece to the jigsaw puzzle that is autism, Dager said, adding, " We're no closer to a treatment. " Other new research is also starting to unravel common beliefs about this disorder. In addition to social interaction problems, a study in the current issue of Child Neuropsychology found autism prevents different parts of the brain from working together. That makes complex tasks, such as tying shoelaces, much more difficult. The children studied were 8 to 15 years old. More information For more information on autism, go to National Institute of Mental Health (www.nimh.nih.gov ). SOURCES: Dager, M.D., professor, radiology research, Center on Human Development and Disability, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle; Shih, director, research and programs, National Alliance of Autism Research, Princeton, N.J,; Aug. 22, 2006, Neurology Copyright © 2006 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved. Health News | Health Encyclopedia | Quizzes and Tools | Women's Health | Men's Health | Children's Health | Seniors' Health | Diet, Fitness and Self Image | Sex and Relationships All content © Copyright 2000 - 2006 WorldNow and WFIE, a Raycom Media Station. . For more information on this site, please read our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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