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Central Conduction Time in Childhood Autism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

R. J. McClelland ,
D. G. Eyre ,
D. Watson ,
G. J. Calvert  and
Eileen Sherrard
R. J. McClelland*
Affiliation:
Department of Mental Health, The Whitla Medical Building, Queen's University, 97 Lisburn Road, Belfast BT9 7BL
D. G. Eyre
Affiliation:
Stradreagh Hospital, Londonderry
D. Watson
Affiliation:
Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Belfast City Hospital
G. J. Calvert
Affiliation:
Muckamore Abbey Hospital, Antrim
Eileen Sherrard
Affiliation:
Holywell Hospital, Antrim
*
∗Correspondence
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Abstract

To investigate the integrity of the brain-stem in 20 mentally handicapped children who met the Rutter criteria for autism, brain-stem auditory evoked potentials were obtained for a range of stimulus intensities. Central conduction times (CCTs) were calculated for the Wave l–Wave V interval of the brain-stem potentials. In children under 14 years of age CCTs were normal. In children 14 years of age and over, three of four girls and eight of nine boys had CCTs exceeding normal limits when compared with a group of controls of normal intelligence, matched for age and sex. CCTs recorded from a group of non-autistic mentally handicapped children were within normal limits. The age distributions are consistent with a maturational defect in myelination within the brain-stem in autism, a defect which may have a much wider anatomical distribution throughout cortical and subcortical structures.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 160 , Issue 5 , May 1992 , pp. 659 - 663
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1992 

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