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Biomedical subjects

R G Maurer

Publications and source records attributed to R G Maurer.

10 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1998

Movement analysis in infancy may be useful for early diagnosis of autism.

All of the 17 autistic children studied in the present paper showed disturbances of movement that with our methods could be detected clearly at the age of 4-6 months, and sometimes even at birth. We used the Eshkol-Wachman Movement Analysis System in combination with still-frame videodisc analysis to study videos obtained from parents of children who had been diagnosed as autistic by conventional methods, usually around 3 years old. The videos showed their behaviors when they were infants, long before they had been diagnosed as autistic. The movement disorders varied from child to child. Disturbances were revealed in the shape of the mouth and in some or all of the milestones of development, including, lying, righting, sitting, crawling, and walking. Our findings support the view that movement disturbances play an intrinsic part in the phenomenon of autism, that they are present at birth, and that they can be used to diagnose the presence of autism in the first few months of life. They indicate the need for the development of methods of therapy to be applied from the first few months of life in autism.

Autistic Disorder↗
PubMed1987

Tuberous sclerosis and the autistic syndrome.

A case of tuberous sclerosis presenting with autistic behaviour is described. Although tuberous sclerosis is a rare cause of the autistic syndrome, it should be more strongly suspected when autistic behaviour is associated with seizures in a young child.

Autistic Disorder↗
PubMed1986

Neuropsychology of autism.

Childhood autism is a syndrome characterized by a triad of abnormalities in social interaction, verbal and nonverbal communication, and imaginative activity. It is clinically heterogeneous, however, and probably represents a family of syndromes, each of which is the result of a different but related type of brain dysfunction. So far, there is no direct evidence for involvement of particular brain systems, although analogies to other disorders in humans and experimental animals do allow some plausible hypotheses.

Animals↗
PubMed1982

Childhood autism from the point of view of behavioral neurology.

Analysis of the abnormalities present in autistic patients, using standard methods of clinical inference, leads to the conclusion that the manifestations of childhood autism correlate best with the manifestations of dysfunction in the frontal tier of the ring of phylogenetically older cortex located on the mesial surface of the frontal and temporal lobes ("mesocortex" or "mesolimbic cortex") and with the manifestations of dysfunction in the striatum. These structures are distinctive in ways that suggest possible etiologies. The observations and inferences that lead to these conclusions are outlined and are supplemented by data from recent studies by the authors. Emphasis is placed on disorders of motility, communication, and attention and perception.

Attention↗
PubMed1981

Gait disturbances in patients with autistic behavior: a preliminary study.

Kinesiologic analysis of the gaits of 21 autistic, 15 normal, and five hyperactive-aggressive children revealed that the autistic patients had (a) reduced stride lengths, (b) increased stance times, (c) increased hip flexion at "toe-off," and (d) decreased knee extension and ankle dorsiflexion at ground contact. In many respects, the gait differences between the autistic and normal subjects resembled differences between the gaits of parkinsonian patients and of normal adults. These preliminary results are compatible with the view that the autistic syndrome may be associated with specific dysfunction of the motor system affecting, among other structures, the basal ganglia.

Aggression↗
PubMed1980

Computerized tomographic scan findings in patients with autistic behavior.

An analysis of the computerized tomography scans of 17 patients with autistic behavior was carried out by investigators independent from those selecting the subjects. Mild abnormalities of the ventricular system were noted in several scans (increased size, altered left/right relation of lateral ventricles), and in three scans major hydrocephalus and circumscribed lesions of the parenchyma were seen. It was not possible to discern a singular abnormal pattern, the abnormalities appearing consequent to a variety of disease processes of the CNS.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1980

Attention deficit without hyperactivity in a child psychiatry clinic.

Attention deficits in the absence of hyperactivity characterized 17% of 297 patients seen in a Child Psychiatry service. Eighty percent of this group had other identifiable psychiatric disorders, mostly undersocialized conduct disorder, aggressive type. The children with no psychiatric disorders tended either to have learning disabilities, or to be amotivated. The data suggested that attention deficit disorder without hyperactivity, as defined in DSM III, is not an independent syndrome.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1978

A neurological model for childhood autism.

We analyze the behavioral and motor disturbances in childhood autism. On the basis of analogy to signs and conditions seen in adult neurology, we propose that the syndrome results from dysfunction in a system of bilateral neural structures that includes the ring of mesolimbic cortex located in the mesial frontal and temporal lobes, the neostriatum, and the anterior and medial nuclear groups of the thalamus. The mesolimbic cortex is cytoarchitectonically, angioarchitectonically, and neurochemically distinct and, along with the striatum, forms the entire target area of dopaminergic mesencephalic neurons. This raises the possibility that autism is related to neuromediator imbalance in those structures. Such dysfunction might be the result of macroscopic or microscopic changes in the target area or in structures functionally influencing them, consequent to a variety of causes such as perinatal viral infection, insult to the periventricular watershed area, or genetically determined neurochemical abnormalities.

Attention↗