Brain activity may protect children from autism Siblings of
children with autism who show no signs of the disorder may be
compensating with increased activity in two brain regions that
detect social cues, according to results presented yesterday at
the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in San Diego.
Children with autism, their unaffected siblings and healthy
controls each show different activity in brain regions as they
observe socially relevant information, lead investigator Kevin
Pelphrey said at a symposium on autism research. Boosting
activity in the compensatory regions seen in unaffected siblings
could potentially help treat autism, says Pelphrey, associate
professor of psychology at Yale University. Stimulating the
regions in high-risk children at a young age could "keep kids
from getting autism, as opposed to fix it once they have it.
You'd alter the developmental trajectory of the brain," he says.
Pelphrey and his colleagues scanned the brains of children
between the ages of 4 and 17 years as t