Working in Movement

Brain imaging technologies have provided lots of surprising peeks into the goings on inside the human brain. That's even in brains that are compromised by injury or developmental problems like autism. Today's New York Times contains two articles addressing these concerns.

Signs of Awareness Seen in Brain-Injured Persons is both disturbing and hopeful on what's happening in the brains of those with severe brain injuries. Some injured are thought to be totally vegetative, unresponsive to every stimulus. But others are termed minimally conscious, showing some response. It was thought that the minimally conscious could not register any response to language. But researchers found, at least in the two minimally conscious guys in the study, that their brain patterns in response to audio recordings of loved ones showed almost normal patterns.

This is both hopeful and disturbing. Hopeful that ways might be developed to reach inside and make contact. But disturbing that people we used to think of as almost completely responsive might be pretty aware of what's going on around them.

Focus Narrows in Search for Autism's Cause summarizes research presented at a recent autism conference. What the research has in common is clues. That is, for the first time, there are many clues as to the cause of autism.

In autism, subtle brain abnormalities are present from birth. Infants and toddlers move their bodies differently. From 6 months to 2 years, their heads grow much too fast. Parts of their brain have too many connections, while other parts are underconnected.

Moreover, their brains show signs of chronic inflammation in the same areas that show excessive growth. The inflammation appears to last a lifetime.

This also seems to me both hopeful and disturbing. Hopeful in the sense that the clues about the cause of autism are mounting up at an impressive rate, and if diagnosed early enough, open to therapy. But also disturbing in that they do not lead to immediate treatment.