Investigating growth dysregulation in autism

Investigating growth dysregulation in autism

By Cheryl Dissanayake  1

Danuta Loesch   1

& Richard Huggins 2

1 The Olga Tennison Autism Research Centre, School of Psychological Science, La Trobe University, Victoria 3086, AUSTRALIA
2
Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Melbourne, Victoria 3000, AUSTRALIA

Abnormal brain growth in early life, associated with an, enlarged head circumference (HC), is the most consistent biological marker in autism. Here we provide evidence that autism is also associated with an abnormal pattern of linear growth. Although the biological basis of idiopathic autism is unquestionable, the data so far have failed to provide an integrative model of the underlying neurobiological mechanisms. A flurry of neuropathologic and neuroimaging studies have reported developmental anomalies in specific regions of the brain, including the cerebellum, mesial  temporal structures, brainstem, basal ganglia, amygdala, frontal and parietal areas and the corpus callosum, but the findings are not fully consistent across studies (reviewed in Penn, 2006).