Solving the autism puzzle

Several recent studies-including two from Carnegie Mellon-have moved researchers closer to understanding autism, a mysterious brain disorder that impairs verbal and non-verbal communications and social interactions. In the latest of several studies investigating the physiological differences in the brains of people with autism, Carnegie Mellon psychologist Marcel Just used a new imaging technique called diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to discover that the white matter of people with autism has a lower structural integrity than in normal individuals.

Meanwhile, his colleague David Rakison, in a study out of Carnegie Mellon and Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, finds that children with autism are unable to interpret the motion of others, and lag behind their peers in distinguishing between living and nonliving things.

A study out of the McGill University Health Center appears to vindicate what many parents of children with autism have insisted is the culprit-the Measles Mumps Rubella (MMR) vaccine. It's worth noting that several other studies have failed to find a connection between vaccines and autism, as this Slate article notes. More recently in Slate, Gregg Easterbrook reported on a study out of Cornell that suggests a relationship between television viewing and autism. Read about it in Slate here.

Jonathan Potts