Essay On Neurons And Synaptic Connections

Autism is a brain disorder that can affect a child’s development in the sense that they would have trouble with verbal and nonverbal communication, repetitive behavior, or social interaction in general. Autism can be detected in children ages two to three years old and 1 in every 88 children in America are diagnosed with autism yearly.

Autism is a disorder in brain progress that comes to be obvious in earliest youth.

According to Kids Health (2014), “children with Autism have difference in the way their brains develop and process information”. For example, “language delay, trouble communicating with their brains, perform certain unusual or repetitive behaviors, or have difficulties learning in school” (p. 1).

“A wealth of new brain research is lifting the veil” on Autism and revealing its effects on a child`s mind (Cray and Wallis 43). Neuroscientist Eric Courchesne at Children`s Hospital of San Diego revealed that “while children with autism are born with ordinary-size brains, they experience a rapid expansion by age two” (Cray and Wallis 45). Much of this growth is due to the excessive amount of white matter, the nerve fibers that link different areas of the brain. The abundance of white matter has led doctors to believe Autism to be a problem with the way the brain is wired. Marcel Just, director of Carnegie Mellon`s Center for Cognitive Brain Imaging in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, wrote that “there is a lack of synchronization” between the different areas of the brain (Cray and Wallis 46). Local areas of the brain, such as the frontal lobes and the amygdala, are over-connected while links between more distant regions, such as the right and left hemispheres, are poorly connected. One area of the Autistic brain that is enlarged is the amygdala. The amygdala`s job is to assess threats in the environment or in emotional and social behavior. It could be enlarged due to the fact that autistic children maintain a high level of anxiety when having to relate to other people. Another enlarged area of the autistic brain is the hippocampus, an area vital to memory. Doctors believe the hippocampus is enlarged because an autistic child relies on memory to process and interpret situations that most people interpret in a different area of the brain. Researchers have also discovered that autistic brains have chronic inflammation. Amidst these issues Autistic people have learned to adapt and use their brains in unusual ways. For example, they memorize the alphabet in

Autism affects the brain, and it normally develops around the age of eighteen to twenty four months.

“A wealth of new brain research is lifting the veil” on Autism and revealing its effects on a child`s mind (Cray and Wallis 43). Neuroscientist Eric Courchesne at Children`s Hospital of San Diego revealed that “while children with autism are born with ordinary-size brains, they experience a rapid expansion by age two” (Cray and Wallis 45). Much of this growth is due to the excessive amount of white matter, the nerve fibers that link various areas of the brain. The abundance of white matter has doctors convinced that Autism is a problem with the way the brain is wired. Marcel Just, director of Carnegie Mellon`s Center for Cognitive Brain Imaging in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, wrote that “there is a lack of synchronization” between the different areas of the brain (Cray and Wallis 46). Local areas of the brain, such as the frontal lobes and the amygdala, are over-connected while links between more distant regions, such as the right and left hemispheres, are poorly connected. One area of the

Research into Autism has grown enormously over the past 20 years due to growing awareness and the number of children and adults affected. In 1943, Leo Kanner first described the classic autistic syndrome. Since then, our knowledge and understanding in this area has broadened. In consequence, estimates of prevalence have increased considerably.

In the United States, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention reports that between 1 in 80 and 1 in 240, for an average of 1 in 110 children have an autism spectrum disorder, “ASD” (Nirv, Shah 2011). According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, up to six out of every 1,000 children may be diagnosed with some form of autism. In addition, boys are four times more likely than girls to have autism. This means that as many as 1.5 million Americans today are believed to have some form of autism. Unfortunately, the numbers appear to be increasing rapidly. Autism is a disability that frequently appears during the first three years of life. It is the result of a neurological disorder that affects the

In order for an individual to be diagnosed with Autism, the individual must have qualifications stated in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) (Kim, Fombonne, Koh, Kim, Cheon, & Leventhal, 2014). These qualifications that are included in the DSM-IV are symptoms of qualitative impairment in social interaction and communication, restricted repetitive and stereotypical patterns of behaviors, interests, activities, and delays in functioning (Kim, Y. S., Fombonne, tell. 2014). Researchers have found that structural differences, such as size and composition, can have a significant impact on how the autistic brain processes information. Therefore, there is a variation between what researchers describe as a "normal person" and one who is diagnosed with Autism. Structural differences cause children who have autism, would have impaired social interaction and difficulty with communication, both verbal and nonverbal. During the early stages of Autism,

As discussed in the article the neurological disorder of Autism comes from the physical form of the disorder, like the size of the head that has unusually rapid growth, in theory happens because of the overgrowth of neuronal connections, so the brain didn 't clear out the biological debris as it formed new circuits as it would normally have, meaning that pruning process was amiss.

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are a class of NDD affecting mostly males, which are largely idiopathic and display extensive variation in terms of phenotype, severity and degree of heritability [2]. It is postulated that the pathology of ASD is the result of a complex interaction between genetic predisposition and environmental risk factors, which disturb the developing brain [1]. ASD commonly involve deficits in social interaction and cognition, language, emotional learning and the presence of repetitive, stereotyped behaviours [1, 3, 4]. The brains of autistic children display reductions in long distance connectivity, abnormally regulated apoptosis and cell division, and increased inflammation [4].Additional studies have demonstrated gliosis, abnormal neuronal migration and

An author of Autism Speaks states, ¨A newly published brain-tissue study suggests that children affected by autism have a surplus of synapses or connections between brain cells.¨ (Autism Speaks). The autistic brain has developed an abundance of synapses during brain development causing connections between the brain to get mixed up. Scientists believe that this surplus of extra connection is the cause of those people who have autism have bigger brains. Stephanie Watson states ¨Scientists have discovered that in people with autism, this wiring is faulty, leading to misfiring in communications between brain cells¨ (Watson). This evidence shows that because the brain has developed all of these synapses they get mixed up and end up sending information to the wrong part of the brain so this is the reason many people with autism get confused about processing emotions, when they try to read the emotions the signal takes a while to get to the amygdala (involved with the experiencing of emotions.) From this information, we can see that the difference between autistic brains and typical brains is that autistic brains have a surplus of

The author Kraft, Ulrich talks about if autism can be detected early on it can be treated opportunity when the brain is going underwire during development time. The article talks about how important it is to start early diagnosis when the brain is still “strengthening and pruning neural networks”.

Schumann, Elizabeth Redcay, Joseph A. Buckwalter, Daniel P. Kennedy, John Morgan( Maping Early Brain Development in Autism)

It has been evidently proven that a child’s brain is different even before any autistic symptoms responses are shown. This will allow specialists to diagnose children with autism at an earlier age, in order to identify what causes the risks of autism. Autism has been proven to develop over the coarse of a child’s developing years; it doesn’t just appear. With this discovery doctors can now get involved from preventing any behaviors from occurring. A major aspect of distinguishing one who grows with autism and one who doesn’t even when they’re both at high risk of it, is the contrast in FA levels. One who grows into autism has higher FA levels at 6 moths and slowly develops. At 24 months their FA levels are lower than infants without autism.