The Energy That Makes the Brain Grow from NGF to BDNF the New Frontiers on the Origins of Autism Towards a General Theory and a New Definition

1. First stage: Turin-Brussels-Turin-(mountains)-St.Louis 2. Stage two: the growth factor within us 3. A First Explanation Within Ourselves 4. Step four: an initial explanation outside of us. 5. Fifth stage: a first synthesis. 6. Sixth stage: in the laboratory 7. Seventh stage: outside the laboratory 8. A unitary proposal 9. A new definition of autism 10. A leap to 1925. This chapter builds on the assumptions described in Chapters 4 , 5 , 6 , 10 , 11 . The unitary thesis proposed here and presented on the basis of recent findings is, in short, that there is, as a prerequisite, a genetic predisposition in terms of susceptibility. The entire panel of genes involved is not essential, but there must certainly be a critical number of them, which may also vary from person to person (Chapter 10 ) At a critical stage of NGF and BDNF expression in neurogenesis, and in particular, at the moment of specialisation, an environmental factor, in the intrauterine developmental phase, intervenes as a trigger in a chain that leads to atypical brain development: a total of 974 abnormalities in neural connections associated with autistic behaviour have been identified (Chapter 6 ); fewer may occur as well as more or different ones. The abnormalities we are talking about are mainly connectional: something in the circuit and in the process of connecting neurons has gone wrong. This is confirmed to us by the cranio-cerebellar anomalies we have discussed and described in Chapter 6 This is confirmed by the quantitative differences in the brain's white and grey masses and their size. This is confirmed by the consequences of damage to the neurobiological circuit of attention. This is confirmed by the effects of damage to the neurophysiological circuit related to the theory of mind. This is confirmed by the dysfunctions implicit in the malfunctioning of the mirror neuron complex (Chapters 8 , 9 , 11 ). The entire characteristic and symptomatic picture and comorbidity (Chapter 4 ) is consistent with this general explanation. And the intensity and characteristics depend on where, how, when and how much environmental interference has intervened in the neurogenesis process. Consequently, a new definition of autism is proposed as 'autistic state' for the time of diagnosis and 'autistic complex condition' for the individual description that can provide an indication of possible intervention.