Brain Scans Reveal New Autism Subtypes by Pooja Shete on December 23, 2020 at 10:25 PM
The research conducted at the UC Davis Mind Institute is published in the journal
Biological Psychiatry.
The research was based on the brain scans taken over many years as part of the Girls with Autism, Imaging of Neurodevelopment (GAIN) and Autism Phenome Project (APP) studies that showed the importance of longitudinal studies that follow the same children from diagnosis into adolescence.
Big Brains
For the first study, the researchers used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to track the size of brain (volume) in 135 children without autism and 294 children with autism between the ages of 3 and 12. In children with autism, it was found that larger brain size relative to height- or disproportionate megalencephaly. It is a subtype linked with higher rates of intellectual disability and poorer overall prognosis.