A new study by researchers from the Columbia University Medical Center in New York, NY, finds that children and adolescents with autism have too many synapses in their brain, which can affect their brain function. Furthermore, the team believes it may be possible to reduce this excess synapse formation with a drug, paving the way for a novel autism treatment strategy. Around 1 in 68 children in the US have autism - a developmental condition characterized by behavioral, social and communication problems.
Exactly what causes autism is unclear, but researchers believe that it is triggered by abnormalities in the structure of the brain that stop it from functioning properly. In this latest study, published in the journal Neuron, co-author Guomei Tang, PhD, assistant professor of neurology at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC), analyzed 26 brains of children and adolescents with…
