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Tero Toivanen

Autism Research Blog: Translating Autism: Amygdala, autism and clinical impairment: Whe... - 0 views

  • The amygala serves a critical function in emotion recognition and processing, and thus it has been implicated in the neurophysiology of autism. For example, individuals with autism have been found to display atypical amygdala growth processes from childhood into adolescence (see for example Nacewiz et al., 2006. Archives of General Psychiatry, 63,12).
  • The Amygdale's bilateral biochemical functioning was obtained via magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Four metabolites were measured: N-acetyl aspartate (NAA), creatine/Phosphocreatine (Cre), choline (Cho), and myoinositol (ml).
  • The authors did not find any differences in the concentrations of any of the metabolites when comparing the HFA and the control groups
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  • However, among the individuals with HFA, NAA was significantly associated with communication impairments, as measured by the ADI. In addition, Cre and NAA were associated with restrictive interests, and Cre alone was associated with social difficulties. The results therefore, indicate that those with the lowest concentrations of these metabolites tended to have more severe clinical symptoms as reported by the ADI.
  • The results of this study provide support for the need to conduct examinations that go beyond simple group comparisons.
  • key metabolites, while observed at normative levels, play a key role in the clinical presentation of the disorder.
  • presence of normative functioning in a particular domain or brain process (when compared to typical peers) does not necessarily indicate that such domain is not implicated in the phenomenology of the condition.
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    Amygdala, autism and clinical impairment: When group comparisons are not enough. The results of this study provide support for the need to conduct examinations that go beyond simple group comparisons. In this case, the authors found no differences in any of the metabolites between the two groups, which could easily lead one to conclude that such metabolites may not play a role in autism. Yet, the results were strong in indicating that key metabolites, while observed at normative levels, play a key role in the clinical presentation of the disorder.
Tero Toivanen

Facing Autism in New Brunswick: Autism Diagnoses: DSM V Should Separate Autistic Disord... - 0 views

  • This inclusion of substantially different disorders, with wildly different challenges, in one "spectrum" of disorders implies that the very serious challenges of persons with Autistic Disorder who lack a fundamental understanding of the world, who have very limited abstract thought and who have very little in the way of communication skills are somehow fundamentally similar to persons with good to excellent facilities in all these crucial areas of life.
  • Research is resulting in more and more people describing autism in the plural as autism disorders with different causes and different possible treatments.
  • It is time for the DSM to get realistic about the Autism "Spectrum".
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  • It is time to merge High Functioning autism disorders with Aspergers Disorder and separate them from Autistic Disorder.
  • It is time for the DSM to recognize the importance of levels of ability to function in and understand the world and to reflect those levels in their classification of development disorders.
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    It is time to merge High Functioning autism disorders with Aspergers Disorder and separate them from Autistic Disorder.
Tero Toivanen

Facing Autism in New Brunswick: Autism Severity - 0 views

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    The DSM V committees drafting revisions to the manual are considering distinguishing between autism disorders based on severity or level of functioning.
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