Autism Spectrum Disorders Health Center

Brain Size of Children Yields Clues to Autism

The Role of Genes

Hazlett and colleagues are continuing to follow the children in an effort to learn more about the differences in brain development patterns between kids with and without autism.

Piven is leading the effort to follow children at risk for autism from the age of 6 months.

He hopes to have 500 infant siblings of children with autism in this study before enrollment ends.

Genes play a big role in autism, and roughly 20% of these siblings can be expected to develop ASD, Piven tells WebMD.

The children in the study will be followed closely, with brain imaging and behavioral testing conducted at 6, 12, and 24 months.

“The idea is that by following the trajectory of brain development and behavior in individual children over time we will begin to understand autism better,” Piven says.

Funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Alliance for Medical Image Computing, the study appears in the May issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry.