Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Amygdalas and autism

The amygdala is a part of the brain linked to facial recognition and emotions and new research from the University of North Carolina suggests that it may be enlarged in toddlers with autism. Researchers found enlarged amygdalas in toddlers with autism at two and four years of age and found that they were associated with problems in joint attention - the ability to look the right way when Mum says 'look at the fire engine.' The study used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans to compare the brains of 50 toddlers with autism to a control group of 33 unaffected infants.

You can find out more about this research at

http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=news&id=118787&cn=20

No comments: