2011.3.8 06:00
Research team from Hamamatsu Medical University and others reveal that acetylcholine is affecting autism.
Compared to healthy individuals, functions of a substance called acetylcholine, found in the part of a brain where it recognises other person’s expressions, are weaker in autistic patients. This finding was jointly revealed by Hamamatsu University School of Medicine, Chukyo University and specified non-profit activities body (NPO body) “AsperLD Club”. It was made public on an American medical journal on 8th (Japan time), stating that it could prevent symptoms from deteriorating.
After focussing on the autistic patients’ tendency to avoid eye contact with the other person, the team researched the functions of acetylcholine, which affects the activities of “fusiform gyrus”, situated at the bottom of the brain and recognises the faces of others.
The team conducted Positron Emission Tomography （PET） on twenty autistic patients aged between 18 and 33 along with twenty healthy individuals and compared the quantity of proteins produced by the functions of acetylcholine.
As a result, the ability of acetylcholine to function in the autistic patients was weaker than the healthy individuals by approximately 20~40%. It was also found that the weaker the function, the greater the tendency was to avoid eye contact. It was then suggested that the lack of functions in acetylcholine was possibly the cause of the symptoms.
According to Associate Professor Suzuki (Psychiatry) from Hamamatsu University School of Medicine, “Unveiling one of the causative agents of autism could lead to preventing symptoms from deteriorating.”
