COVER -- Autism, Brain, and Environment -- Contents -- PREFACE -- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS -- Chapter 1 Introduction -- Chapter 2 Autism and Autism Spectrum Disorders: An Introduction to the Problem of Recognition and Diagnosis -- Pervasive developmental disorders -- Early diagnosis -- Autism, a preferred diagnosis? -- The broader phenotype -- Is there really such a thing as autism? Subtypes -- Chapter 3 Genetic Contribution to Autistic Spectrum Disorders: Diversity and Insufficiency -- How important are genes in ASD? Heritability -- Insufficiency of genetic predisposition -- Genetic predisposition to ASD -- The search for new genes -- Potential ASD genes -- Problems with the genome approach -- The patchwork genome -- Epigenetics and brain disorders -- Genes and environment -- Chapter 4 New Phase Autism: Rising Prevalence -- The debate -- Increasing prevalence -- Why do different studies seem to give different rates? -- Potential confounding factors -- Other evidence addressing a rise -- Summary of observations -- Is there an epidemic of autism? -- Conclusion. The rise may be real: new phase autism -- Chapter 5 Brain Abnormalities: Focus on the Limbic System -- Brain structure -- Studying brain structure: techniques -- Morphometric studies: brain size -- Histology: hippocampus, amygdala, cerebellum, cortex -- Imaging studies highlight the limbic brain -- Functional studies -- Cerebellum -- Cortex -- Interpreting structural data -- Consensus: limbic brain and overlying cortex, with lesser cerebellar effects -- Chapter 6 Limbic Dysfunction Correlates with the Autistic Phenotype -- Anxiety -- Desire for sameness -- Perception of facial emotion -- Social interaction -- Language -- Seizure -- Sensory deficits -- Stereotypy and repetitive/compulsive behaviors -- Gastrointestinal (GI) effects and endocrine anomalies -- Age of onset/maturation.

Limbic lesions can produce ASD -- Autism spectrum disorder is consistent with what we know of limbic function -- Overview and conclusions -- Memory -- Chapter 7 Environmental Factors, Heavy Metals, and Brain Function -- Environmental factors and ASD -- Metals: evidence for exposure -- Heavy metal susceptibility -- Genetic predisposition to heavy metal toxicity -- Heavy metal toxicity: the trimethyltin (TMT) paradigm -- Behavioral consequences of TMT exposure -- Developmental susceptibility -- Population exposure: excess and deficiency -- Limbic susceptibility to toxic insult -- Other environmental factors -- Heavy metals and other insults: a toxic cocktail in ASD -- Chapter 8 Gut, Hormones, Immunity: Physiological Dysregulation in Autism -- Gastrointestinal (GI) tract disorder -- Serotonin elevation in autism -- Hormones in ASD -- Immune system -- Liver and kidney -- Conclusion -- Brain to body signaling -- Chapter 9 Body and Mind: Impact of Physiological Changes on Brain and Behavior in ASD -- Serotonin - brain effects -- Hormones and brain -- Sulfur pathways and gene expression -- Heme pathways - brain feedback -- Amino acid pathways and heme -- Do feedback cascades operate in ASD? -- A complexity: seizure -- How good is the evidence? Assessment of different damage routes -- Gut and brain -- Chapter 10 Biomedical Therapy: Typing and Correction -- Approaches to therapy -- Pharmaceutical agents -- Rectification of biochemical deficits -- Speech and behavior therapies -- Prevention -- The Gesch and Walsh studies -- What's wrong with my child? Subtyping ASD -- Chapter 11 The Environmental Threat: From Autism and ADHD to Alzheimer -- Nature and timing of the insult -- Diverse impairments - from autism to Alzheimer disease -- Beyond the brain -- Co-risks and co-disorders -- Environmental toxicity only produces disease in predisposed individuals.

Sociobiology of the limbic brain: convergence -- Promoting neurogenesis: potential for therapy -- What causes autism? -- Concluding remarks -- REFERENCES -- ABBREVIATIONS AND GLOSSARY -- FURTHER READING -- INDEX.