Young Brains

If you're a neuroscientist hoping to do experiments on brain tissue from children with autism, you have a steep road ahead of you: Existing brain banks hold samples from just 1,300 young brains, including only a few hundred from children with the disorder.Research on postmortem brains, particularly young brains, is messy — biologically, politically and ethically. But the tissue provides a unique window into how autism takes shape in the developing human brain — bringing researchers many steps closer to the problem than genetic blood tests, brain imaging studies or psychological experiments.Last week, an editorial in Nature called on government and nonprofit organizations to push for an international tissue bank of brains from tens of thousands of children and fetuses, either healthy or with any of various brain disorders.Read more at...SFARI, November 2011.