When researchers examined human postmortem brain tissue—some from typical brains and others from those with an autism diagnosis—they found evidence of changes to blood vessels in autistic brains.
“Our findings show that those afflicted with autism have unstable blood vessels, disrupting proper delivery of blood to the brain,” explains Efrain Azmitia, a biology professor at New York University and senior author of the study published in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.
“In a typical brain, blood vessels are stable, thereby ensuring a stable distribution of blood,” adds Azmitia. “Whereas in the autism brain, the cellular structure of blood vessels continually fluctuates, which results in circulation that is fluctuating and, ultimately, neurologically limiting.”
