Brain 1998 May;121( Pt 5):889-905

A clinicopathological study of autism.

Bailey A, Luthert P, Dean A, Harding B, Janota I, Montgomery M, Rutter
M, Lantos P

MRC Child Psychiatry Unit, Institute of Psychiatry, London, UK.

[Medline record in process]

A neuropathological study of autism was established and brain tissue
examined from six mentally handicapped subjects with
autism. Clinical and educational records were obtained and standardized
diagnostic interviews conducted with the parents of
cases not seen before death. Four of the six brains were
megalencephalic, and areas of cortical abnormality were identified
in four cases. There were also developmental abnormalities of the
brainstem, particularly of the inferior olives. Purkinje cell
number was reduced in all the adult cases, and this reduction was
sometimes accompanied by gliosis. The findings do not
support previous claims of localized neurodevelopmental abnormalities.
They do point to the likely involvement of the
cerebral cortex in autism.

PMID: 9619192, UI: 98282951