Theoretical aspects of the study of benzodiazepine receptors in infantile autism.

This paper is part of a special section on 'psychopharmacotherapy in children' and focuses on benzodiazepine receptors in autism. Infantile autism in an early and pervasive developmental disorder described by Kanner in 1943. Anatomical, pathological and magnetic resonance imaging studies have indicated changes in the cerebellum and hippocampus of autistic subjects. Given the numerical importance and diffuse benzodiazepine receptors, their study by functional brain imaging methods in vivo could be value in cases of infantile autism as a gauge of neuronal potentiality. The main data concerning benzodiazepine complex are presented. The relations between these data and the neurophysiological hypotheses of autism are discussed.