Autism in the 1940s
			Leo Kanner (1943) described a group of children, in his practice at Johns Hopkins University, who displayed a peculiar lack of awareness or interest in other people.  Developmental language disorder was a major component of the disorder he described as a "disturbance of affective contact," or "infantile autism."  Kanner (1946) described the speech of children with autism as "irrevelant and metaphorical," documenting the out-of-context use of phrase fragments.
			Were these among some of the first infants subjected to immediate cord clamping at birth in the 1930s?  Now clamping the umbilical cord within seconds after birth is routine.  Why then aren't all children autistic?
			Most infants do breathe immediately at birth, and as noted by Apgar, receive a score of 8, 9, or 10.  Autism now occurs in about 1 of 166 births.  Is it possible that 1 in 166 infants do not breathe within the first few seconds after birth?
			Autism is associated with many etiological factors, including prenatal exposure to alcohol and other drugs such as valproic acid (depakote), thalidomide, cocaine, misoprostol, prenatal rubella infection, and genetic metabolic disorders such as phenylketonuria, fragile-X syndrome, tuberous sclerosis, and adenylosuccinate lyase defect.  Complications at birth are also well documented in children with autism.
			Brain systems involved in language development and social awareness must be affected by all of the etiological factors associated with autism.  The inferior colliculus in the midbrain auditory pathway is the most metabolically active site in the brain, and is likely affected by all of the etiological factors associated with autism.  The midbrain tectum is also where auditory and visual stimuli evoke awareness and orientation to environmental events.
	The inferior colliculi were prominently affected in monkeys subjected to asphyxia at birth, and I suggested long ago (Simon 1976) that this might be the locus of impairment underlying deranged language development in children with autism.