Autism and cerebellum. An unusual finding with MRI.
In recent years neuroimaging techniques have shown in young autistic children morphological disorders of the brainstem and cerebellum. After a review of the literature the authors present a three-year-old child, with a pervasive developmental disorder (autistic type) whose MRI shows an unusual finding in the right cerebellar hemisphere. The achieved levels in many developmental areas (linguistic, cognitive, relational, communicative) have been referred too. This developmental description represents additional information to the research about possible correlations between autistic symptoms and neuroanatomic abnormalities. The focus is about the role of neocerebellum in complex processes such as joint attention, shift attention, cognitive and linguistic functions which are probably involved in pathogenesis of autistic disorder. The presence of such inabilities in a case with cerebellar hemisphere abnormalities, without vermis compromission, could suggest that in autism exist deficits in more complex connections between neocerebellum and others regions of the brain.
Muratori
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F
Institute of Child Neuropsychiatry, IRCCS Stella Maris, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy. muratori@inpe.unipi.it
Cesari
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A
Casella
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C
D016080:Arachnoid Cysts / Q000473:pathology; D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000473:pathology* / Q000523:psychology; D002531:Cerebellum / Q000002:abnormalities / Q000473:pathology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male