A small study with children who have autism has revealed that the brains of autistic kids are heavier than non autistic children. It was also discovered that these children’s brains contained 67 percent more prefrontal neurons than the brains of other children. Scientists from the NIH-UCSD School of Medicine Autism Center conducted the study. This study compared 7 children with autism to 6 “normal” kids. Their ages ranged from 2 to 16.  You can learn more about autism by keeping up with the latest health resources.

This finding may be the reason that many children who have autism often have larger heads than other children. Neural mal-functions play a large role in communication and cognitive disruptions in autistic children. While more study is needed it is possible this could provide significant medical breakthroughs into how and why autism occurs.

The team that performed the study decided to try and determine whether over sized brains early in life in autistic children means these kids will have higher PFC neuron counts. The team conducted post-mortem on 13 kids with 6 having had autism. The children who had autism had 79 percent more DL-PFC neurons and they also had more M-PFC neurons, 29 percent more than non-autistic kids.

The conclusion we can draw from these studies is that for some reason children who have autism have larger amounts of neurons in their brains, and they are causing some of the problems. This would also seem to verify that genetics may indeed be part of autism as scientists believe. Of course, this is only a small study, and many larger tests are needed to completely verify these findings.

Until a cure is found it is important that the parents of autistic children continue to learn about new therapies, and use the many autism products that can make a huge difference in your child’s life. It is essential that parents be on the same page with their child’s therapists, so they can build on what their child learns in therapy.

On the whole, a small yet exciting study has determined that autistic children have heavier brains than other kids. Their brains also have more neurons which seem to account for the brains heavier weight. This may be the reason many autistic children develop abnormally large heads in their early years. More studies are needed, but the results of these tests are encouraging.