MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Bradley S. Peterson, MD Director of the Center for Developmental Neuropsychiatry Director of the Center for Developmental Neuropsychiatry, New York State Psychiatric Institute Suzanne Crosby Murphy Professor in Pediatric Neuropsychiatry, Columbia University, NY MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Peterson: We detected the presence of lactate in the brains of 13% of 75 participants who had ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder), compared with 1% of the brains of 96 typically developing control participants. The presence of lactate was especially more common in adults who have ASD. Lactate is a product of anaerobic metabolism, which generally should not occur in healthy, living brains under normal circumstances. The presence of lactate in the brains of persons with Autism Spectrum Disorder therefore suggests the presence of deficient production of energy stores by a component of brain cells called “mitochondria”. We detected lactate most commonly in the cingulate gyrus, a region that supports the higher-order control of thought, emotion, and behavior, and that has been implicated previously in Autism Spectrum Disorder. (more…)