A Pathophysiological Approach to Brain Issues in Autism
How do whole-body issues affect the brain in autism? Documentation of cellular-level inflammatory and oxidative stress changes in the brain still leaves open specifically how these changes translate into altered thinking and behaviors. This lecture will review the components of the brain's physical infrastructure, how they interface with the brain's signaling mechanisms, how pathophysiology in autism may alter this interface, relevant research methods and frontiers, and treatment implications.
Martha R. Herbert, MD, PhD, PhD, MD
Martha Herbert is a pediatric neurologist and researcher at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School and the Harvard-MIT-HST-Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging. Her TRANSCEND Research Program uses advanced brain imaging techniques and biomarkers to look at the relationship of metabolism, perfusion and brain function, and at brain change with treatment. Her whole-baby infant project studies how brain and physiology problems co-emerge starting prenatally and in early infancy.
