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[Best Syndication] Researchers from the Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore Maryland found a link between increased white brain matter and functional impairment with poor motor skills with children diagnosed with autism.

The researchers studied children with autism and children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and found that the children with autism had an increase in the white matter volume in the motor region of the brain. This increase in white matter also was a predictor in the autistic children’s poor motor skill functions.

This is the first time that research has been able to pinpoint a relationship between white matter and motor skill function in autistic children. Besides having poor motor skills, autistic children also lack socialization and communication skills.

Motor skills that are often experienced in autistic children are things like riding a tricycle, pumping their legs on a swing, buttoning or zipping clothes, or tying shoe laces. High-functioning autistic children often called Asperger syndrome will excel in academic areas but do not do well in sports.

The study included 76 children ranging in age from 8 – 12 years old. There were 20 children diagnosed as high-functioning autistic. They had 36 children that were used as a control group and were typically developing children. The last group of 20 was children diagnosed with ADHD.

The children were measured using anatomic magnetic resonance imaging (aMRI) to document brain functions. They were able to notice the increase in white matter volume with the autistic children. This discovery may be a defining biological difference of children with autism. The researchers did not see the increase of white matter in the other two groups.

“Carefully examining systems responsible for controlling simple aspects of behavior, such as basic motor control, can provide a window into understanding the systems that are responsible for control of more complex social and communicative behavior,” said Dr. Stewart H. Mostofsky, lead study author and a pediatric neurologist in the Department of Developmental Cognitive Neurology at the Kennedy Krieger Institute. “This finding is an important step forward and will guide future research into the abnormalities associated with socialization and communication that define the disorder.”

By Mark Barone
Best Syndication Writer