STRUCTURAL abnormalities in a baby’s brainstem may lie behind around half the cases of sudden infant death syndrome.
Hannah Kinney and David Paterson at the Children’s Hospital Boston examined the brains of 31 infants who had died of SIDS and compared them with the brains of 10 infants who had died of other causes. They found abnormalities in the medulla, the part of the brainstem that regulates breathing, blood pressure, body heat and arousal. SIDS babies had more of the neurons that release serotonin, but fewer receptors for the neurotransmitter (see Diagram).
Kinney has previously recorded low numbers of…
