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The amygdala, babies, and Autism
Following up on yesterday’s post is an interesting new finding from the University of North Carolina, where researchers are confirming more evidence for an actual structural brain difference in babies with Autism.
Please excuse the “science geek” in me, but this stuff is really important for us to understand. It will help us to better diagnose and help even very young children with Autism-related difficulties, and it will help us to screen out those who SEEM to have Autism, but don’t (see yesterday’s post).
For my non-science-geek, non-shrink parent readers, this is the bottom line here: It’s important to really be watching the quality of your baby’s social development. Your baby’s glances, smiles, gestures and babbles in his first year of life tell you a TON about whether he’s developing normally. The article highlights the importance of “Joint Attention”, which is what your baby does to attract and sustain your attention, in order to share something interesting with you. If he likes doggies, when he sees one, he’ll try to get your attention so that YOU can see the doggie — and get excited by it — too. He’ll want to share his interests with you, even if he doesn’t yet have the words to tell you about them. By the end of his first year, you should see him doing this more and more. Children with Autism have trouble with this — and now we have more information as to why.
If you’re interested in more, check out the summary article here.
And as always, post a comment with your questions or thoughts, if you’d like.
Aloha,
Dr. Heather
The BabyShrink
My understanding of the amygdala is that it is the first and oldest site for memory, developing around the 10th week when an embryo graduates to fetus status. Some seem to relate this to the “lizard” brain and distinguish it from conscious memory that develops much later (3-4 years old?).
This suggests to me that amygdala memory starts in the womb and would be greatly influenced by neonatal conditions, making the care and support of pregnant women a primary concern in its healthy development.
This seems to me to be the position of Lloyd deMause, the pioneer of psychohistory, and implicated by him as a significant driver of human social development.
Is all of this just too much out in right field or could this be relevant to autism?
Hi Jay,
Great to see you here. Jay, you’ve been a great support and inspiration to me in getting BabyShrink off the ground! Who knew you also had this deep knowledge about fetal brain development, too?!
But yes, of course, the amygdala has long been known to be a powerful force in social development. What’s really exciting about this particular branch of research is that, for the first time, we see structural proof of divergence from normal development happening as early as the first year of life. We as clinicians are always looking for ways to diagnose — and treat — this disorder as early as possible. That makes for better outcomes.
Many today worry about vaccines and autism. Although the point of this research is certainly not to relieve vaccines from any fault, the findings do point in a different direction. Perhaps there is an environmental factor at play, in-utero, as you suggest. Or perhaps this is genetic. That is still unknown. But it’s exciting to be able to get one step closer to some answers!
I saw the news article on this study, too, and the inner geek in me stirred. Very interesting to read your thoughts here, and those of Jay (will go visit him after commenting).
I was thinking along the lines of a failure to prune properly after birth – resulting in an apparent ‘overgrowth’ and less organized behavior.
I’ve also commented on (Kristina Chew’s blog) that until underlying neurological differences for autistic behavior are found, the best treatments are undiscovered. Just a couple of my thoughts.