At KXAS-TV in Dallas, Ben Russell reports:
"It'll belong to science," Briesch said with a smile. "Whenever any member of our family is no longer using our brains, when we have passed on, we have committed to donate our brains for autism research."
Briesch, of Dallas, agreed to donate her brain for medical research being conducted by doctors involved with the Autism BrainNet.
"Brain study is the key to solving autism, and our mission is to urge families to make the heroic decision to register for brain tissue donation," is the opening message on the Autism BrainNet homepage.
"The way we like to say it is that these people have super brains," UT Southwestern Medical Center Department of Psychiatry chair Dr. Carol Tamminga said. "The brains are very important. And we’d like the chance to be able to take a look at these brains after they are done with them."
Autism BrainNet — a consortium of five research hospitals across the country — has collected 170 brain tissue donations so far. Eight of those brains are from Texas. Only 206 Texans, like Briesch and her family, have registered with the program.
