700,000 children have cerebral palsy in Nigeria

No fewer than 700,000 children are living with cerebral palsy, consultant pediatrician, Prof Afolabi Lesi has said.
Cerebral palsy (CP) is a physical disability that affects movement and posture. It is an umbrella term that refers to a group of disorders affecting a person’s ability to move. CP is a permanent life-long condition, but generally does not worsen over time. It is due to damage to the developing brain either during pregnancy or shortly after birth.

Study: Autism Linked to More Brain Cells

There's growing evidence that the brains of autistic children are very different from the brains of other youngsters. Now a new study that found an excess of brain cells in children with autism comes closer to pinpointing the origins of the condition: in utero versus in toddlerhood.
In research reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), scientists at the University of California, San Diego, found that autistic children have about 67% more nerve cells in a part of the brain known as the prefrontal cortex than children without autism. The prefrontal cortex is involved in processing social skills, communication, cognitive functions and language — all areas in which autistic children often show abnormal development.

Brain Balance Center Works on Rebuilding Nervous System of Children with Disabilities

SPRINGFIELD, Del. — The jungle gym and balls only shed a partial light on the approach the Brain Balance Center takes toward aiding child clients with behavioral and developmental challenges.
But the sensory motor exercises done here add to what operators say are a full program that addresses difficulties created by an imbalance of the connections between the two sides of the brain.
"This was more of a comprehensive approach," Joe Schneider, owner of the Delaware County Brain Balance Center, said.

Study of Autistic Toddlers May Lead to Early Detection

Researchers studying autistic toddlers have discovered their brain activity appears to be out of sync at a very early stage -- a finding that sheds light on the biology of the condition and might help in earlier diagnosis.

In research published in the journal Neuron, scientists in Israel used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to look at the brains of sleeping toddlers and found that certain types of neural activity are disrupted in autistic children, but not in typical children or in others with delayed language development.

"What we looked at is how the activity is synchronized," Ilan Dinstein of Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, who led the study, said in a telephone interview.

"And we found that the synchronization was different -- specifically in toddlers with autism and across the hemispheres (of the brain) in areas related to language and communication."

Research Dedicated to MRI Brain Scanner

NISKAYUNA, N.Y. – GE Global Research and Mayo Clinic have received a five-year, $5.7 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to jointly research a dedicated MRI brain scanner to image for a range of neurological and psychiatric disorders such as stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, traumatic brain disorder, depression and autism.
The aim of the reasearch is to help expand the availability of MRI scanners beyond the hospital to smaller clinic settings.
The grant, from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) – both components of NIH – will help a Mayo Clinic team led by Matt A. Bernstein, a medical physicist, and John Huston III, MD, a neuroradiologist.