Thursday, March 27, 2014

Brain Changes Suggest Autism Starts In The Womb

A study that shows Autism most likely occurs during brain development (of the brain cortex).





Brain Changes Suggest Autism Starts In The Womb : Shots - Health News : NPR:



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from the website:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2014/03/26/294446735/brain-changes-suggest-autism-starts-in-the-womb



Brain Changes Suggest Autism Starts In The Womb

Researchers say intervention in early childhood may help the developing brain compensate by rewiring to work around the trouble spots.
Researchers say intervention in early childhood may help the developing brain compensate by rewiring to work around the trouble spots.
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The symptoms of autism may not be obvious until a child is a toddler, but the disorder itself appears to begin well before birth.
Brain tissue taken from children who died and also happened to have autism revealed patches of disorganization in the cortex, a thin sheet of cells that's critical for learning and memory,researchers report in the New England Journal of Medicine. Tissue samples from children without autism didn't have those characteristic patches.
Organization of the cortex begins in the second trimester of pregnancy. "So something must have gone wrong at or before that time," says Eric Courchesne, an author of the paper and director of the Autism Center of Excellence at the University of California, San Diego.
The finding should bolster efforts to understand how genes control brain development and lead to autism. It also suggests that treatment should start early in childhood, when the brain is capable of rewiring to work around damaged areas.
The study grew out of research by Courchesne on development of the cortex in children with autism. In typical kids, the cortex is "like a layer cake," he says. "There are six layers, one on top of the other, and in each layer there are different types of brain cells."
Courchesne suspected that these layers might be altered in the brains of children with autism. So he and a team of researchers studied samples of cortex from 11 children with autism and an equal number of typical kids. The cortex came from areas known to be associated with the symptoms of autism.
In the brain tissue from typical children, the cortex had six distinct layers, each made up of a specific type of cell. But in the children with autism, "there are patches in which specific cells in specific layers seem to be missing," Courchesne says. So instead of distinct layers, there are disorganized collections of brain cells.
These patches of disorganized cortex would have different effects on the brain depending on where they occur and how many there are, Courchesne says. That could help explain why the symptoms of autism vary so much.
And finding that the damage isn't everywhere suggests how a child's brain might compensate by rewiring to avoid the trouble spots, Courchesne says. "That's one of our guesses about how it is that autistic children, with treatment, very commonly get better," he says.
The new study appears to confirm research from the University of California, Los Angeles showing that people with autism tend to have genetic changes that could disturb the formation of layers in the cortex.
And it adds to the already considerable evidence that autism starts in the womb, says Dr. Stanley Nelson, a geneticist at UCLA. "The overwhelming set of data is that the problems are existing during brain development, probably as an embryo or fetus," he says.
But some of the new study's findings are surprising and even a bit perplexing, Nelson says. For example, it's odd that only certain bits of brain tissue contain these disorganized cells. "Why is the whole cortex not disorganized?" he says.
It's also odd that 10 of the 11 children with autism had the same sort of disorganized patches of cortex, Nelson says. That's not what you would expect with a disorder known to involve many different genes, presumably affecting many different aspects of brain development.
So he'd like to know what researchers would find if they looked at hundreds of brains instead of just a few. "What fraction of all the kids with autism are going to have these small patches?" he says. "I think the jury's out on that."
Nelson is right that there's no clear answer yet, says Ed Lein, one of the paper's authors and an investigator at the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle. But it's possible that many different combinations of genes involved in autism could lead to the same patches of disorganization in the layers of cortex.
Finding out whether that's the case will be difficult because there is a shortage of brains from children available to researchers. Parents of children who die — with and without autism — rarely agree to donate their child's brain to science.
Scientific and advocacy groups are trying to change that with a program that informs families about tissue donation and a website that encourages people with autism and their families to get involved in research projects.

Transcript:
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AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:
Children who have autism usually don't get diagnosed before the age of four. But a study published in the current issue of The New England Journal of Medicine suggests the disorder starts well before birth. The findings should bolster efforts to understand how genes control brain development and contribute to autism. NPR's Jon Hamilton reports.
JON HAMILTON, BYLINE: About halfway through pregnancy, the brain of a fetus starts to get organized. Eric Courchesne, an autism researcher at UC San Diego, says this process is especially important in the cortex, a thin sheet of cells that's critical for learning and memory.
ERIC COURCHESNE: This sheet is like a layer cake. There are six layers, one on top of the other. In each layer, there are different types of brain cells.
HAMILTON: Courchesne suspected that these layers might be altered in the brains of children with autism. So he and a team of researchers studied samples of cortex from 22 children who had died. The cortex came from areas known to be associated with the symptoms of autism. Courchesne says some of the samples came from typical children, others from children with the disorder.
COURCHESNE: In autistic cortex, there are patches about five millimeters to 10 millimeters in diameter in which specific cells in specific layers seem to be missing.
HAMILTON: In these patches, Courchesne says, instead of distinct layers, there are disorganized collections of brain cells without clear boundaries. He says this almost certainly means that something went wrong very early in brain development.
COURCHESNE: Somewhere between around 19 weeks gestation and about 30 weeks of gestation, the cortex begins to develop clear distinct layers. So something must have gone wrong at or before that time.
HAMILTON: Courchesne says these patches of disorganized cortex would have different effects on the brain, depending on where they occur and how many there are. That could help explain why the symptoms of autism vary so much. Courchesne says it also suggests how a child's brain can compensate for the damage by rewiring.
COURCHESNE: There may be some cortical areas that are less affected. And therefore, rewiring around these patches may, in some individuals, be successful leading to improved functions. That's one of our guesses about how it is that autistic children with treatment very commonly get better.
And it suggests that treatment should start early in childhood in order to encourage as much rewiring as possible. The new study appears to confirm research from UCLA showing that people with autism tend to have genetic changes that could disturb the formation of layers in the cortex.
HAMILTON: Stan Nelson, a psychiatrist at UCLA, says the study also adds to the considerable evidence that autism starts in the womb.
DR. STAN NELSON: The overwhelming set of data is that the problems are existing during brain development, probably as an embryo or fetus.
HAMILTON: But Nelson says some of the new study's findings are surprising and even a bit perplexing. For example, he says, it's odd that only certain bits of brain tissue contain these disorganized cells.
NELSON: Why are we just seeing them in small patches? Why is the whole cortex not disorganized?
HAMILTON: Nelson says it's also odd that 10 of the 11 children with autism had the same sort of disorganized patches. He says that's not what you would expect with a disorder that's known to involve many different genes, presumably affecting many different aspects of brain development. So he'd like to know what researchers would find if they looked at hundreds of brains instead of just a few.
NELSON: What fraction of all the kids with autism are going to have these small patches? I think the jury's out on that.
HAMILTON: The study's authors agree. But they say the patches may turn out to be a common feature of autism. Finding out for sure will be difficult. That's because this sort of research can't happen unless parents of children who die agree to donate their child's brain to science.
Jon Hamilton, NPR News.
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The High Cost of Student Loans

The High Cost of Student Loans



Even though mt retirement money may go towards the kids college education, it is definitely worth it in the long run.

It also makes strong academic performance important towards scholarships to offset what could be an ongoing cost to their future.



$1 trillion student loan debt widens US wealth gap:



'via Blog this'



From MSN.com

http://news.msn.com/in-depth/dollar1-trillion-student-loan-debt-widens-us-wealth-gap-1





$1 trillion student loan debt widens US wealth gap

Nida Degesys graduated in May 2013 from Northeast Ohio Medical University with about $180,000 in loans.


Every month that Gregory Zbylut pays $1,300 toward his law school loans is another month of not qualifying for a decent mortgage.
Every payment toward their student loans is $900 Dr. Nida Degesys and her husband aren't putting in their retirement savings account.
They believe they'll eventually climb from debt and begin using their earnings to build assets rather than fill holes. But, like the roughly 37 million others in the U.S. saddled with $1 trillion in student debt, they may never catch up with wealthy peers who began life after college free from the burden.
The disparity, experts say, is contributing to the widening of the gap between rich and everyone else in the country.
"If you graduate with a B.A. or doctorate and you get the same job at the same place, you make the same amount of money," said William Elliott III, director of the Assets and Education Initiative at the University of Kansas. "But that money will actually mean less to you in the sense of accumulating assets in the long term."
Graduates who can immediately begin building equity in housing or stocks and bonds get more time to see their investments grow, while indebted graduates spend years paying principal and interest on loans. The standard student loan repayment schedule is 10 years but can be much longer.
The median 2009 net worth for a household without outstanding student debt was $117,700, nearly three times the $42,800 worth in a household with outstanding student debt, according to a report co-written by Elliott last November.
About 40 percent of households led by someone 35 or younger have student loan debt, a 2012 Pew Research Center analysis of government data found.
Allen Aston is one of the lucky ones, having landed a full academic and financial-need scholarship at Ohio State University. The 22-year-old software engineer from Columbus estimates it let him avoid about $100,000 in debt.
Without loans to repay, Aston is already contributing 6 percent of his salary to a retirement fund that is matched in part by his employer and doesn't have the same financial concerns his friends do.
"I'm making the same money as them, but they have student loans they're paying back that I don't. So, it definitely seems noticeable," he said.
At the other end of the spectrum is Zbylut, an accountant-turned-attorney in Glendale, Calif. He's been chipping away at nearly $160,000 in student debt since graduating in 2005 from law school at Loyola University in Chicago. Now 48, the tax attorney estimates he could have $150,000 to $200,000 in a 401(k) had the money he's paid toward loans gone there.
"I'm sitting here in traffic. I've got a Mercedes behind me and an Audi in front of me and I'm thinking, 'What did they do that I didn't do?'" Zbylut said by cellphone from his Chevrolet. He's been turned down twice for the type of mortgage he needs to buy a home big enough for himself, the fiancee he would have married already if not for his debts and her 10-year-old son.
"I have more education and more degrees than my father, as does she than her parents, and yet our parents are better off than we are. What's wrong with this picture?" he said.
Student debt is the only kind of household debt that rose through the Great Recession and now totals more than either credit card or auto loan debt, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Both the number of borrowers and amount borrowed ballooned by 70 percent from 2004 to 2012.
Of the nearly 20 million Americans who attend college each year, about 12 million borrow, according to the Almanac of Higher Education. Estimates show that the average four-year graduate accumulates $26,000 to $29,000 in loans, and some leave college with six figures worth of debt.
The increases have been driven in part by rising tuition, resulting from reduced state funding and costlier campus facilities and amenities. Compounding the problem has been a trend toward merit-based, rather than need-based, grants as institutions seek to attract the higher-achieving students who will boost their standings.
"Because there's a strong correlation in this country between things like SAT scores or ACT scores and wealth or income, the (grant) money ends up going disproportionately to students from wealthier families" who tend to perform better on those tests, said Donald Heller, dean of the Michigan State University College of Education.
Those factors, along with stagnating family incomes and declining savings, have made student loans a much bigger part of funding higher education, Elliott said.
Harvard Business School's Michael Norton wonders whether greater public awareness of the widening wealth gap in the United States would hasten policy change. Norton conducted a 2011 survey that found that people tend to think wealth is more equally distributed than it is.
But with elected officials from President Barack Obama on down now talking about the wealth gap as an urgent public problem, a more complete picture seems to be emerging, he said.
"Both parties are now saying, perhaps inequality has gotten to the point where it's not fair when people don't have a chance to rise, and we need to do something about it," Norton said.
Targeting the soaring cost of higher education, Obama in August proposed the most sweeping changes to the federal student aid program in decades. His plan would link federal money to new college ratings and reward schools if they help low-income students, keep costs low and have large numbers of students earn degrees.
Lawmakers in Congress also are debating how to address the issue, including proposals to allow graduates with high-interest loans to refinance at lower rates.
The American Medical Student Association supports expanding the National Health Services Corps, which provides loan forgiveness in exchange for service in underserved areas.
Nida Degesys, AMSA's president, graduated in May 2013 from Northeast Ohio Medical University with about $180,000 in loans. The amount has already swelled with interest to about $220,000.
"There were times where this would make me stay up at night," Degesys said. "The principal alone is a problem, but the interest is staggering."
Yet, as costly as medical school was, Degesys sees it as an investment in herself and her career, one she thinks will pay off with a higher earning potential.
College degrees can pay off. College graduates ages 25 to 32 working full time earn $45,500, about $17,500 more than their peers with just a high school diploma, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of census data.
Elliott says the country needs to re-think college financing options to bring debt down and graduation rates up.
"We can't," he said, "let debt hinder a whole generation of people from beginning to accumulate wealth soon after graduating college."