NEUROLOGIC ABNORMALITIES IN INFANTILE-AUTISM

Neuroanatomic, pathologic, and neurobehavioral studies point to a cere bellar and parietal abnormality in autism. We used a standardized prot ocol to examine neurologic function in 28 pediatric autistic subjects and 24 pediatric normal healthy volunteer controls. As a group, the au tistic subjects had quantitative measures from magnetic resonance imag ing suggesting hypoplasia or hyperplasia of the cerebellar vermis, as well as measurements of posterior corpus callosum suggesting abnormali ties of posterior cortex. In groups of tests that reflect cerebellar a nd parietal function, the neurologic abnormalities detectable by clini cal examination were significantly greater for autistic subjects than for normal controls. These studies confirm that the structural and beh avioral deficit in autism does lead to abnormalities that can be detec ted on the clinical neurologic examination.