2. Content
• Part I – Let me introduce myself
• Part II – What parts are affected?
• Part III – Functions of involved parts
• Part IV – What I have learned?
4. Part I. Let me introduce myself
• Autism is a neurological/biological disease which
is characterized by delay or disorder of
Communication
Social interaction
Restrictive or repetitive behaviors
7. Part II. What parts are affected?
• Not long ago, the answer to this question
would have been “we have no idea.”
• Research is now delivering the answers.
• Over the last five years, scientists have
identified a number of rare gene changes, or
mutations, associated with autism.
2013 Autism Speaks Inc. Autism Speaks and
Autism Speaks It’s Time To Listen & Design are
trademarks owned by Autism Speaks Inc. All
rights reserved.
8. Part II. What parts are affected?
• One of possible reasons are cerebellum
disorder as there is a reduced number of
Purkinje cells
9. Part II. What parts are affected?
• Cerebellum which is one of top 5 most learned
brain parts.
http://neuroscience.uth.tmc.edu/s3/chapter05
.html
10. Part II. What parts are affected?
• Purkinje cells
They are located in
cerebellum part of
Brain. They are really
gorgeous.
• One of the largest
neurons with
Dendritic arbor and
Many dendritic spines
Week 8 Picture “Neurobiology in the
Everyday Life”
11. Along with other theories do exist
these ones
• Postmortem studies have revealed various
abnormalities, particularly within the limbic
system.1
• Functional MRI procedures have identified
difficulties in tasks involving social and
affective judgments and differences in the
processing of face and nonface stimuli.2
1. Bauman ML, Kemper TL. Neuroanatomic observations of the brain in autism: a review and future directions.
Int J Dev Neurosci. 2005;23(2-3):183-187.
2. Schultz RT, Robbins DL. Functional neuroimaging studies of autism spectrum disorders. In: Volkmar FR, Klin A,
Paul R, Cohen DJ, eds. Handbook of Autism and Pervasive Developmental Disorders, 3rd ed. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley;
2005:515-533
12. Along with other theories do exist
these ones
• Structural MRI has revealed an overall brain
size increase in autism, and diffusion tensor
imaging studies have suggested aberrations in
white matter tract development.3
3. Wolff JJ, Gu H, et al. Differences in white matter fiber tract development present
from 6 to 24 months in infants with autism. Am J Psychiatry. 2012;169(6): 589-600.
13. Along with other theories do exist
these ones
• One of the most frequently replicated
neurochemical findings has been the elevation
of peripheral levels of the neurotransmitter
serotonin. The significance of this finding
remains unclear. A role for dopamine is
suggested given the problems with over
activity and stereotyped mannerisms and the
positive response of such behaviors to
neuroleptic medications.4
4. Anderson GM, HoshinoY. Neurochemical studies of autism. In: Volkmar FR, Klin
A, Paul R, Cohen DJ, eds. Handbook of Autism and Pervasive Developmental
Disorders. 3rd ed., vol. 1. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley; 2005:453-472
14. Part III. Functions of involved parts
• Cerebellum – What does it do?
Cerebellum is responsible for :
• motor learning
• motor coordination (execution)
15. Part III. Functions
• We do learn how to move and do steps and
we do not forget it thanks to cerebellum
• We do learn new things, do new movements
• Motor memory - we do not forget how to do
steps
• Feed Forwarding – adapt changes, new
environment
16. Hypothesis of nowadays
• Why people have autism disorder?
- Because of genes are mutated
- Lack of Purkinje cells in cerebellum
17. Part IV. More about autism
• What different people with autism
• Leo Canner Autism research
• From early time
18. What different people with autism
• Difficulty understanding language, gestures
and/or social cues
• Limited or no speech
• When there is speech, it can be repetitive or
• relate primarily to one particular topic
• Limited or no eye contact
22. Leo Canner: Autism research
• Autism was first described
in 1943 by Leo Kanner who
reported 11 children with
an apparently congenital
inability to relate to other
people, but who were
quite sensitive to change in
the nonsocial
environment.
http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9A%D0%B0%D0%BD
%D0%BD%D0%B5%D1%80,_%D0%9B%D0%B5%D0%BE
American Academy of Child and Adolescent
Psychiatry
23. Leo Canner: Autism research
• Kanner emphasized that the lack of interest in people
was in stark contrast to the profound social interest of
normal infants. He also observed that when language
developed at all it was marked by echolalia, pronoun
reversal, and concreteness. The children also exhibited
unusual, repetitive, and apparently purposeless
activities (stereotypies).
• Autism was initially believed to be a form of childhood
psychosis but, by the 1970s, various lines of evidence
made it clear that autism was highly distinctive.
American Academy of Child and Adolescent
Psychiatry
24. From early time
• Higher rates of autism are consistently noted
in siblings of affected children.
• Recurrence risk has typically been cited at 2-
10%, but a recent prospective longitudinal
study reported a rate of 18.7% when the
broad autism spectrum is considered.5
5. Ozonoff S, Young GS, Carter A, et al. Recurrence risk for autism spectrum
disorders: a baby siblings research consortium study. Pediatrics. 2011;128:e488-
e495.
25. From early time
• Identified risk factors for autism appear to
include closer spacing of pregnancies,
advanced maternal or paternal age, and
extremely premature birth (<26 weeks
gestational age).6-8
6. Cheslack-Postava K, Liu K, et al. Closely spaced pregnancies are associated with increased
odds of autism in California sibling births. Pediatrics. 2011;127(2):246-253.
23
7. Croen LA, Najjar DV, et al. Maternal and paternal age and risk of autism spectrum
disorders. Arch Pediatrics Adolesc Med. 2007;161(4): 334-340.
8. Johnson S, Hollis C, et al. Autism spectrum disorders in extremely preterm children.
Pediatrics. 2010;156(4): 525-531.e522.
26. Part IV. What I have learned?
• The brain is one of the most invaluable gifts
we are given. Any kind of additional
information about its work will not be useless.
• After taking this course I was informed by lots
of funny and in same time important facts and
knowledge.
27. What I liked most during this course?
• Professor’s enthusiasm is so… I do not know
how to say it. That feeling was spread through
millions of miles from US to Central Asia,
Kazakhstan where I live.
• Very clear language of explaining
• Lectures with practice materials
28. What I learned? What I started better
analyze after 10 weeks?
I try to take things that will be useful for myself in
future like
- Folic acid importance during pregnancy
- Prolactin and Oxytocin hormones and their main
functions
- Memory phenomena
- Picture are drawn by brain not by Eyes
- What is Aphasia, Parkinson’s disease.
Was introduced with beauty of Purkinje cells
And other many interesting things like strokes’ genesis.
29. What I learned? What I started better
analyze after 10 weeks?
Brain structure and to analyze how it works
using all information I got if something goes
wrong with my thoughts in brain
Structure of eye
What is dopamine?
How neurons talk with each other?
I had a REAL FUN!
