Central conduction time in childhood autism.

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 I-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 distribution 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.