Neuropathological study of a case of autistic syndrome with severe mental retardation.

Infantile autism is a syndrome of unknown aetiology and unknown neuro-anatomic substrate. The authors report a histological study of the brain of a well-documented 16-year-old female with autistic syndrome and severe mental retardation, using direct microscopic examination of the whole brain. The major findings are low brain weight, a thin corpus callosum and ventricular dilatation.