Manuel Casanova

Casanova graduated from Colegio San Ignacio de Loyola in 1970. He earned a Bachelor of Science (Chemistry) from the University of Puerto Rico and his medical degree from the University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine. He then completed clinical and research fellowships at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, including three years in neuropathology, where he was in-charge of pediatric neuropathology, which was when his interest in developmental disorders of the brain arose. He subsequently helped establish two brain banks, the Johns Hopkins Brain Resource Center and the Brain Bank Unit of the Clinical Brains Disorders Branch at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).

Casanova spent several years as a deputy medical examiner for Washington, D.C., where he gained experience with the postmortem examination of sudden infant death syndrome and child abuse, which was when he began publishing extensively on postmortem techniques, including neuronal morphometry immunocytochemistry, neurochemistry, and autoradiography. He also worked as a consultant and was staff neuropathologist at Sinai Hospital in Maryland, the North Charles Hospital, and the D.C. General Hospital. Served from 1984 to 1990 reaching the rank of Mayor in the United States Army Reserve with the Army Medical Department Augmentation Detachment (FAAD) and the 100th Station Hospital. He is also a former lieutenant commander in the United States Public Health Service. After serving as a professor of psychiatry and neurology at the Medical College of Georgia, he subsequently joined the University of Louisville faculty. In June 2014, he moved to the University of South Carolina and the Greenville Health System.^[2]

Casanova's recent research projects have examined brain abnormalities in patients with neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism spectrum disorders and dyslexia. His interest has gradually come to focus on abnormalities of cortical neurocircuitry, in particular on the cell minicolumn, a vertical conglomerate of eighty to one hundred neurons that have in common a latency of response to stimulation.^[7][8] Using computerized imaging analysis, he has established the anatomical validity of the cell minicolumn. Casanova has reported interhemispheric differences in the morphometry of minicolumns that could provide explanations for the speciation of hominids. Localized in Brodmann area 22—part of Wernicke’s language region—the morphometric difference may play a role both in the development of language and in related disorders.^[6]

His neuromorphology research, conducted in collaboration with other researchers from around the globe, has found there are drastic differences in the brains of autistic individuals. The studies that he conducted show that minicolumns (or 'brain strands') of autism spectrum individuals have more cells, but they are narrower and more densely packed, which he says can limit the brain's ability to send messages.^[9] Casanova claimed this helps explain symptoms since "there's not enough juice to actually power very long connections in the brain".^[10]

Casanova has also been studying the autonomic nervous system in autistic individuals. He found that the sympathetic branch of the ANS is overactive in autistic children, which leads to higher levels of anxiety. Additionally, he believes that TMS and neurofeedback can reduce autonomic dysfunction that is linked to certain foods.^[11]

Casanova notes that one of the problems with brain banks is that preserved brain tissue can deteriorate over time, but claims that brain banks promote far more research insight than MRI scans.^[12]

His expertise in the field of postmortem techniques was recognized by honorary appointments as a Scientific Expert for the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology and as a Professorial Lecturer for the Department of Forensic Science at George Washington University.^[13]