(CNN) –

The size of a specific part of the brain may help experts pinpoint when autism could first develop, University of North Carolina researchers report.Using MRI brain scans, researchers found that the area of the brain called the amygdala was, on average, 13 percent larger in young children with autism, compared with control group of children without autism. In the study, published in the latest Archives of General Psychiatry, researchers scanned 50 toddlers with autism and 33 children without autism at age 2 and again at age 4. The study adjusted for age, sex and IQ.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/05/04/autism.brain.amygdala/index.html