New study suggests autism starts in the womb

The article discusses autism being caused by something going wrong before the baby is born. This is supported by the fact that children with autism have more brain cells than normal developing children. The study suggests that the explanation of the origin of autism is that there are too many neurons or nerve cells in the prefrontal cortex of the brain which controls features that kids with autism struggle with such as social skills, emotions, communication, and language. The control of the number of neurons begins in prenatal life and may extend to perinatal and early post-natal life. The brains of the children with autism studied also were calculated to be heavier than the typical developed child.

After birth, only two parts of the brain generate neurons - the hippocampus and the olfactory bulb. This study looked at the parts of the brain where neurons are generated before birth so the findings support that autism develops before birth in "some, possibly all, cases".

The results of this study are consistent with previous research in that other studies have suggested brain size and overgrowth to play a role in autism. The article  describes the negative effects of "having too much too much of a good thing as having so much going on that the excessive nerve cells interfere with one another as opposed to contributing to the brain's productivity.

This research is "significant because it narrows the window during development when autism-related brain abnormalities emerge." However, experts agree that is is not yet known why there is an overabundance of nerve cells in existance in the brains of these children.