Posted July 20, 2018
In light of the urgent need to address modifiable risk factors, it makes sense to pay attention to some of the environmental exposures acknowledged to play a large role in autism causation, including exposures during pregnancy. Evidence suggests that prenatal environmental exposures “can exert causal influences on developmental disorders” by adversely affecting emerging brain connectivity and neural networks. A key model buttressing this branch of research, described as maternal immune activation (MIA), posits that activation of a pregnant woman’s immune system “can alter the growth of cells in the fetal brain.” Read more.