CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 242Autism Spectrum Disorder ResearchGenetics and Neurodevelopmental DisordersChild Nutrition and Feeding Issues

The DOI matches its Crossref record.

Microscopic Neuroanatomic Abnormalities in Autism

Bauman, Margaret L.·1991·Pediatrics
DOI 10.1542/peds.87.5.791
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

Since its initial description in 1943,1 autism has been primarily conceptualized as a behavioral disorder, and for many years it was believed to be the result of parental and environmental influences. With heightened clinical interest in the disorder, coincident with advances in medical technology, however, evidence for an underlying neurologic basis for autism has become increasingly apparent. HISTORICAL NEUROPATHOLOGIC PERSPECTIVE Based largely on the constellation of symptoms that characterize the disorder, various anatomical sites within the brain have been suggested as a possible primary source of pathology in autism. Suspected regions have included the medial temporal lobe,2-5 the thalamic nuclei,6 the basal ganglia,7 and the vestibular system.8 Computed tomographic imaging studies have shown inconsistent findings.9-14 More recently, however, magnetic resonance imaging studies have described abnormalities in portions of the cerebellum and posterior fossa.15-17 Direct microscopic examination of the autistic brain has, until recently, yielded little information. Aarkrog18 reported "slight thickening of the arterioles, slight connective tissue increase in the leptomeninges, and some cell increase" in a frontal lobe biopsy performed on an autistic patient. Later, in 1976, 33 cases of childhood psychosis were reviewed by Darby.19 Although he suggested a possible correlation between limbic system lesions and the affective symptomatology of autism, no consistent neuropathologic findings were found. In 1980, Williams et al20 studied sections of brain from four patients with autistic-like behavior; looking primarily for cell loss and gliosis, they failed to find any consistent abnormalities. MICROSCOPIC NEUROANATOMIC OBSERVATIONS In 1984, anatomic abnormalities were reported in the brain of a 29-year-old man with well-documented autism; the technique of whole brain serial section was used, and the patient was studied in comparison with an identically processed age- and sex-matched control subject.21,22

Overview

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1542/peds.87.5.791

Cites

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Verification

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Citations

Cites

Still being checked.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Items 201–241 of 241

Related

See all

Metadata

Authors
Bauman, M. L.
Affiliations
Massachusetts General Hospital (US)
Corresponding author
Bauman, Margaret L.
ORCID
Bauman, Margaret L.
Venue
Pediatrics
Publisher
American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)
Published
1991-05-01
Volume
87
Issue
5
Pages
791-796
ISSN
  • 0031-4005 (ISSN-L)
  • 1098-4275
DOI
10.1542/peds.87.5.791
OpenAlex
W4206201268
Cited by
242
References
0
Citations by year
2026: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 8 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 7 · 2015: 5 · 2014: 6 · 2013: 9 · 2012: 11
FWCI
6.24
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
  • PEDIATRICS (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Autism Spectrum Disorder Research
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Genetics and Neurodevelopmental Disorders
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Child Nutrition and Feeding Issues
Keywords
autism spectrum disorder, neuropathology, brain biopsy, cerebellum, posterior fossa, medial temporal lobe, thalamic nuclei, basal ganglia, limbic system, gliosis, cell loss, history of autism research
MeSH terms
Adult, Autistic Disorder, Brain, Cerebellum, Child, Female, Hippocampus, Humans, Limbic System, Male

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review