Brain Changes in Autism

According to new research, brain changes in autism are comprehensive throughout the cerebral cortex rather than just particular areas thought to affect social behavior and language




UCLA study is the most comprehensive effort ever to study how autism affects the brain at the molecular level.

Brain changes in autism are comprehensive throughout the cerebral cortex, not only confined to particular regions traditionally considered to affect language and social behavior. These are the findings of a new study, led by the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), which substantially refines scientists’ understanding of how autism spectrum disorder (ASD) progresses at the molecular level.


Published on November 2 in the journal Nature, the study represents a comprehensive effort to characterize ASD at the molecular level. Although neurological disorders like Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease have well-defined pathologies, autism and other psychiatric disorders have had a lack of defining pathology. This had made it particularly difficult to develop more effective treatments.


The new study finds brain-wide changes in virtually all of the 11 cortical regions analyzed. This holds true regardless of whether they are higher critical association regions – those involved in functions such as reasoning, language, social cognition, and mental flexibility – or primary sensory regions.

“This work represents the culmination of more than a decade of work of many lab members, which was necessary to perform such a comprehensive analysis of the autism brain,” said study author Dr. Daniel Geschwind, the Gordon and Virginia MacDonald Distinguished Professor of Human Genetics, Neurology and Psychiatry at UCLA.  READ MORE...

Lowering Risk of Dimentia

The habits include:

1. exercising
2. losing weight 
3. having good nutrition
4. maintaining a healthy blood pressure
5. reducing blood sugar
6. not smoking
7. regulating cholesterol.

Scientists have identified 7 healthy linked to lower rates of dementia in those with genetic risk.

According to a study recently published in Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology, seven healthy habits and lifestyle factors may help reduce the risk of dementia in people with the greatest genetic risk.

The seven cardiovascular and brain health factors are known as the American Heart Association’s Life’s Simple 7: being active, eating healthier, losing weight, not smoking, keeping a healthy blood pressure, regulating cholesterol, and lowering blood sugar.

“These healthy habits in the Life’s Simple 7 have been linked to a lower risk of dementia overall, but it is uncertain whether the same applies to people with a high genetic risk,” said study author Adrienne Tin, Ph.D., of the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson. “The good news is that even for people who are at the highest genetic risk, living by this same healthier lifestyle are likely to have a lower risk of dementia.”

In the research, 2,738 people with African heritage and 8,823 individuals with European ancestry were tracked over the course of 30 years. At the start of the trial, participants’ average age was 54.

The levels of each of the seven health factors were reported by study participants. The range of total scores was 0 to 14, with 0 being the most unhealthy score and 14 denoting the most healthy score. People of European heritage scored on average 8.3, whereas people of African descent scored on average 6.6.

Researchers calculated genetic risk scores at the start of the study using genome-wide statistics of Alzheimer’s disease, which have been used to study the genetic risk for dementia.  READ MORE...

Religion and Brains

Religion and neurology often seem at odds; an extension of the questionable chasm separating spirituality and science. Indeed, in attempting to explain religious faith, neuroscientists have often sought to highlight subtle differences in brain structure that might confirm a deficiency here or reduction there.

A new, preregistered study out of the Netherlands, published in the European Journal of Neuroscience, sought to test prominent hypotheses in the literature relating brain structure to religious experience by way of a high-powered (i.e., having a large sample size), methodologically robust study on religiosity and structural brain differences.

The need for this, according to the authors, stems from myriad methodological inconsistencies in previous research, including small sample sizes, improperly validated testing tasks, and conceptual confusion regarding the structures being measured.

Thus, while the authors readily admit that brain connectivity measures may provide a more nuanced and accurate picture of the brain-religion relation, their primary aim was to “establish the (absence of the) relation between religiosity and structural brain differences at a level of methodological and statistical rigor that we hope will set a new standard for future studies.”

In other words: to dispel notions of the most basic and simplistic relations between brain structure and religious experience, paving the way for more sophisticated approaches.

Three theories were put to test.  TO READ MORE, CLICK HERE...