Translated material
Temperature effect
Doctors have developed a theory of the origin of autism
Scientists at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University in Israel have proposed a revolutionary new theory for the origin of autism. The brains of people with this disease, according to research, are structurally normal, but certain areas of it are “unbalanced.” If the new theory of Israeli doctors is correct, then this mysterious disease may be curable.Doctors from all over the world note with alarm that autism, a complex behavioral disorder that affects the patient’s ability to communicate with other people, is rapidly moving from the category of rare to the category of common. In the USA, the number of patients over the past 30 years has increased 15 times, in the UK - ten times. The number of cases is also rising in other countries.
Although autism has received a lot of attention, its causes are still unclear. It is believed that most cases develop in children under three years of age. Although cases of later onset of autism are not uncommon.
They tried to explain autism by the consequences of measles, mumps and other diseases suffered at an early age and by numerous vaccines, but not a single theory has been confirmed so far.
One of the original explanations was proposed by Michael Waldman, a professor at Vanderbilt University, USA. He believes that about 40% of cases of autism in young children can be explained by... rainy weather and the widespread development of cable television networks with programs for children. On rainy days, children have to stay at home, so they spend most of their time watching TV. In patients with autism, according to Waldman, there is unusual activity in those areas of the brain that are responsible for receiving and processing visual information. They develop in early childhood and are directly involved when watching TV.
The new theory of Israeli doctors was published in the latest issue of the journal Brain Research Reviews. Its authors, Mark Mechler, director of the Institute for Mental Disorders and Neurological Regeneration at Einstein, and professor of neurology Dominic Purpura, believe that the cause of autism is disturbances in the activity of the so-called locus coeruleus, a 12-mm-long bundle of neurons in the superolateral part of the rhomboid. fossae of the brain stem. The locus coeruleus is responsible for processing sensory signals coming from different parts of the body.
The theory of Mechler and Purpura is based on a pattern noticed several decades ago, according to which many autistic children’s behavior improves when their body temperature rises. When the temperature drops, their behavior regresses. Two years ago, the journal Pediatrics published the results of a study in which the authors observed autistic children during and after a fever and compared their behavior with the behavior of autistic children who had a normal temperature. It has been proven that the behavior of autistic children with a high temperature often changes for the better.
“We are talking about an area of the brain in which there are no irreversible changes,” emphasizes Mark Mehler. “This gives us reason to hope that with the help of new, not yet developed treatment methods, we will eventually learn to help people with autism.”
According to the authors of the theory, various studies indicate that the noradrenergic system coeruleus-noradrenergic (LC-NA) is involved in the formation of autism.
“The LC-NA system is the only brain system that is involved in both the production of heat and the control of behavior,” says Dominic Purpura.
The locus coeruleus is associated with those areas of the brain that process sensory information and produces most of the brain's norepinephrine, a biologically active substance through which nerve impulses are transmitted. Norepinephrine plays a key role in the mechanisms of arousal and complex behaviors such as focusing or shifting attention from one task to another. Attention deficit is considered one of the main symptoms of autism. The uniqueness and importance of the locus coeruleus lies in the fact that it activates almost all higher-order brain centers and is involved in complex cognitive tasks.
According to Mehler and Purpura, in people with autism, the LC-NA system is imbalanced due to a complex combination of environmental factors and genetic and epigenetic factors (chemicals found both inside and outside the genome that regulate gene expression). Scientists believe that maternal stress plays a major role in the imbalance of the system, especially in the last stages of pregnancy, when the fetal brain is especially vulnerable.
Last year, the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders published the results of an interesting study, according to which the percentage of autistic children in women who experienced storms and hurricanes during pregnancy was higher than in women whose pregnancies were calm.
Mechler and Purpura believe that elevated temperature in autistic children stimulates and temporarily restores active functioning of the LC-NA system. If the disease were caused by pathological or structural changes in the brain, then this phenomenon would not occur. Since there are no pathological or structural changes in the brain, there is hope that in the future it will be possible to help patients with autism.