An MRI study of autism: The cerebellum revisited
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To the Editor:
Piven et al.1 reported that in their autistic and control subjects, the midsagittal area of the cerebellar vermis lobules VI and VII was 0.31 mm2 (that is, 310 μm2, which is less than half the cross sectional area of the cell body of a single Purkinje neuron; for instance, Ito2 reports it to be 676 μm2 in cats). The same report stated that the cerebellar vermis lobules I to V were 0.50 ± 0.0 mm2 in autistic patients and 0.50 ± 0.06 mm2 in control subjects, sizes just as impossibly small. Another cause for incredulity was the standard deviation of 0 mm2.
When these impossibilities were brought to the attention of Piven by one of my colleagues, his laboratory staff replied that “mm2” was a typo and it should have been “cm2.” Because 1 cm = 10 mm, and 1 cm2 = 100 mm2, this correction would bring the reported vermis area measures up to 31 mm2 for lobules VI and VII and 50 mm2 for lobules I to V; sizes in the rat cerebellum range. When the new concern was again voiced, Piven’s laboratory gave yet another set of numbers: 308.3 ± 91.5 mm2 and 311.2 ± 98.0 mm2 for lobules VI and VII and 449.5 ± 71.5 mm2 and 457.3 ± 60.7 mm2 for lobules I to V.
This third set of numbers still does not appear to be correct. Perhaps they reported their numbers rounded off. If so, their published figures of 0.5 mm2 were inaccurate by 1,000 times; rescaling by this factor would bring their area size up to 500 mm2, still about 11% in error of …
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