[tomasGiden]

One of my sons had a heart defect needing open heart surgery when he was 5 days old (it went fine!). In connection to that he was enrolled in a scientific study. Apparently when you are in a heart and lung machine as an infant (<1 month old) the pressure in the machine is so great compare to the normal pressure that the blood cells break creating free radicals. These free radicals can in turn create damage in the brain which can later on cause problems with executive functions and complex reasoning. Autistic people also have problems with executive functions (my other son has Asperger’s). Now I’m not saying that free radicals cause autism but maybe they modulate it when the same parts of the brain are affected by them during infancy.