Seizures and Autism

描述（由申请人提供）：癫痫发作活动作为自闭症和/或神经退化（例如语言能力）的因果因素的作用一直备受争议。本次研讨会旨在探讨这种关联的证据，讨论这些关系所依据的数据，并阐明可能与此类儿童/发育神经障碍有关的潜在基本机制。会议将分为三个主要部分：1 .发育过程中正常脑功能的活动依赖性生成；2。脑发育异常的神经化学和电相关；ⅲ。临床退行性障碍及其与发展性癫痫的关系。来自不同学科（癫痫、自闭症、睡眠）的基础科学家和临床研究者将被邀请参加讨论。此外，我们将为对这些临床和基础研究问题/关系感兴趣的年轻研究者提供奖学金。为期两天半的会议计划于2004年早春（3月）在萨克拉门托/太浩湖地区举行。本次会议的目的是确定发育性癫痫和自闭症之间的潜在（因果关系？）联系，特别是行为和语言退化。我们希望促进关于共同/共享机制的批判性讨论。讨论的结果将总结在一份“白皮书”中，提交给神经病学/发育/癫痫杂志。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The role of seizure activity as a causal contributor to autism and/or neurological regression (e.g., in language) has been hotly debated. The proposed symposium is designed to explore the evidence for such an association by discussing the data on which these relationships are based, and elucidating potential basic mechanisms that might link such neurological disorders of childhood/development. The meeting will be divided into three major sections: I. Activity-dependent generation of normal brain function during development; II. Neurochemical and electrical correlates of brain developmental abnormalities; and III. Clinical regressive disorders and their relationship to developmental epilepsies. Basic scientists and clinical investigators from a number of different disciplines (epilepsy, autism, sleep) will be invited to participate in the discussion. In addition, we will provide scholarships for young investigators interested in these clinical and basic research issues/relationships. The two-and-a-half day conference is planned for early spring (March) of 2004, in the Sacramento/Lake Tahoe area. The goal of this conference is to define potential (causal?) links between developmental seizure disorders and the occurrence of autistic disorders, particularly behavioral and language regression. We hope to foster a critical discussion regarding common/shared mechanisms. The results of the discussion will be summarized in a "white paper" to be submitted to a neurology/development/epilepsy journal.