Researchers present signs of autism

2010/07/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Anatomia/Fisiologia
• Medikuntza

They present the results of the largest genetic research on autism and annul the hypothesis based on mirror neurons

The Autism Genome Project has published in the scientific journal Nature the results of the largest genetic study related to this syndrome. The study compared the genome of 1,000 people with autism to the genome of 1,300 people without this syndrome. They have shown that autistic DNA has 19% smaller changes than others, and that these changes do not occur in all genes but the other way around.

Some of these genes were already associated with autism, but others were not. Some are also related to other mental disorders such as schizophrenia. On the other hand, some are inherited and others belong to the analyzed person. However, researchers believe that there may be a "common pathogenic mechanism" to help clarify this research mechanism.

In addition, researchers at New York University have shown that an autism hypothesis is wrong. In fact, a few years ago, neuroscientists proposed that the explanation of autism could be in mirror neurons.

Mirror neurons are able to feel empathy and one of the symptoms of autism is the inability to get on the skin of others. Therefore, it seemed reasonable to think that the spectral neurons of people with autism did not work properly and that affected them. Some studies with children and primates also found favorable evidence for this hypothesis.

However, according to researchers at the University of New York, these tests were not very solid. They have conducted experiments specifically designed to solve it, with and without adults with autism, and using magnetic resonance imaging they have collected images of the participants' brain activity. Comparing the results of each other, it is observed that areas with mirror neurons work similarly in all. Thus, researchers at the University of New York have concluded that the hypothesis linking autism with spectral neurons is wrong. The study has been published in the journal Neuron.