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Tero Toivanen

Top Autism Facts - Top Autism Facts - 2 views

  • 1. Autism Is a 'Spectrum' Disorder
  • it is possible to be bright, verbal, and autistic as well as mentally retarded, non-verbal and autistic.
  • 2. Asperger Syndrome is a High Functioning Form of Autism
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  • The only significant difference between AS and High Functioning Autism is that people with AS usually develop speech right on time while people with autism usually have speech delays.
  • 3. People With Autism Are Different from One Another
  • 4. There Are Dozens of Treatments for Autism - But No 'Cure'
  • 5. There Are Many Theories on the Cause of Autism, But No Consensus
  • 6. People Don't Grow Out of Autism
  • 7. Families Coping with Autism Need Help and Support
  • 8. There's No 'Best School' for a Child with Autism
  • Even in an ideal world, "including" a child with autism in a typical class may not be the best choice. Decisions about autistic education are generally made by a team made up of parents, teachers, administrators and therapists who know the child well.
  • 9. There Are Many Unfounded Myths About Autism
  • Since every person with autism is different, however, such "always" and "never" statements simply don't hold water.
  • 10. Autistic People Have Many Strengths and Abilities
  • They are also ideal candidates for many types of careers.
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    This brief, pithy article provides the bare bones basics for a quick read - along with links to more in-depth information for those who want to know.
Tero Toivanen

Autism Therapy: pivotal response training | Healing Thresholds - 0 views

  • Future research may allow therapists to know in advance which type of applied behavior analysis (ABA therapy) is most likely to work for any given child with autism.
  • This study of six children was designed to see if it is possible to predict which type of ABA therapy will work for which child with autism.
  • The authors were able to predict which children would respond to pivotal response training, but not which ones would respond to discrete trial training. The authors note that all children were first exposed to pivotal response training and then to discrete trial training and this may have influenced the results. Children who liked toys were more likely to respond to pivotal response training than children who did not like toys.
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  • This study looked at whether or not a type of applied behavior analysis (pivotal response training) could be used to teach play skills to children with autism.
  • . Both children in the study improved their social skills during recess time.
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    Type of training in which certain behaviors are assumed to be crucial for other behaviors. These pivotal behaviors are then targeted so that the behaviors that depend upon them can change as well.
Tero Toivanen

Genes implicated in twins' autism | The Autism News - 1 views

  • Researchers have known for years that when one identical twin has autism, the other is also likely to be diagnosed with it – evidence that autism likely has a genetic component.
  • Researchers at Kennedy Krieger Institute studied 277 pairs of twins and found that when one identical twin had the disorder, the other developed it 88 percent of the time; for fraternal twins, that figure was 31 percent.
  • Despite this progress in unlocking the mysteries of autism, scientists have simply confirmed that there are likely numerous genetic links to autism.
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  • Each discovery explains just a tiny fraction of autism’s causes. Researchers think the great majority – 90 percent – of autism cases have a genetic cause, but they’ve found fewer than 10 percent of the triggers.
  • researchers have found about 50 genes so far that might be tied to autism, which explain very few cases, he said.
  • Autism isn’t one disease; it’s too individual to locate just one genetic cause. It’s not like cystic fibrosis, a disorder for which researchers have identified one gene – and tests to diagnose it.
  • autism researchers envision that a wide variety of gene defects are responsible for the symptoms collectively known as autism spectrum disorders. The disabilities, different in each child, range from the mild Asperger syndrome to more severe impairments in social interaction and communication.
  • “It’s going to take some work before we understand the true causes of autism,” he said. “We need to make much more headway to ever have enough understanding so that patient management and therapies can be improved.”
  • None of the new findings explains why more children are being diagnosed with autism. Genes, said Goldstein, tell only part of the story.
  • “The idea is there is an environmental interaction with the genetic component,” he said.
  • Autism may be inherited to some degree, but even twin studies show that not all sets of identical twins have autism. And when they do, they don’t always have the same severity of the disorder
  • That connection between genes and the environment, called epigenetics, might explain these distinctions
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    Researchers have known for years that when one identical twin has autism, the other is also likely to be diagnosed with it - evidence that autism likely has a genetic component.
Tero Toivanen

Autism Information - Autism Information You Need To Know - 1 views

  • There are plenty of myths about autism spectrum disorders out there.
  • But even those of use who are well-grounded in autism basics may be surprised by some of these facts, which are emerging from recent research.
  • We do know what causes autism -- but only in about 20% of cases.
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  • Quite a few children who are diagnosed with autism at a very young age are no longer diagnosable with autism by the time they’re school-aged.
  • Whatever the reasons, many children who are diagnosed with autism as toddlers will not be diagnosable by the time they're in fifth grade.
  • Early intervention (diagnosis and treatment prior to age three) is very helpful indeed, but there is no “window of opportunity” that slams shut at a certain age. Thus, even children who are diagnosed later or receive less early intervention may do quite well in the long run.
  • Early intervention does, however, provide a now-or-never opportunity to allow non-verbal children to develop some kind of useful tool for communication (picture cards, signs, or even spelling boards).
  • There is no official “cure” for autism. In fact, researchers like Dr. Susan Levy at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia argue that even when a young child is no longer diagnosable on the autism spectrum, he is probably still autistic.
  • Late talking is not an indication of a poor prognosis.
  • Children with autism may or may not be visual thinkers. Thus, school programs designed with visual thinking in mind may or may not be appropriate for any individual child with autism.
  • After many years of research, we still don’t know which treatments are most effective for which children -- or whether one treatment is more effective than another. Behavioral interventions are the best-researched treatments for autism, but even top scientists acknowledge that developmental interventions may or may not be equally useful for any given child. Meanwhile, only two drugs -- Risperdal and Abilify -- have been approved for use with children on the autism spectrum, and neither addresses “core” issues of autism (social/communication deficits).
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    Important facts and information about autism.
Tero Toivanen

Facing Autism in New Brunswick: Autism Taboo: Shhhh! Don't Mention THEM! - 0 views

  • It is now politically incorrect to refer to anyone as mentally retarded. The polite and proper term to use now is intellectually disabled. Either way there is very little mention of the fact that many persons with Autism Spectrum Disorder diagnoses are severely intellectually challenged. In the world's autism communities there are many who perceive it as an insult to mention the existence of the intellectually disabled autistic population.
  • some well known autism researchers work hard at showing the world how intelligent autistic persons really are, even those who cannot demonstrate that intelligence with any obvious ability to communicate or function in the real world.
  • The mere mention of the existence of low functioning autistic persons with serious intellectual challenges is forbidden.
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  • The exclusion by autism self advocates of the intellectually disabled autistic population occurs despite the fact that many persons with Autistic Disorder are intellectually disabled. The ICD-10 mentions this fact expressly in its description of Autistic Disorder:
  • Autistic Disorder...In addition to these specific diagnostic features, it is frequent for children with autism to show a range of other nonspecific problems such as fear/phobias, sleeping and eating disturbances, temper tantrums, and aggression. Self-injury (e.g. by wrist-biting) is fairly common, especially when there is associated severe mental retardation.
  • All levels of IQ can occur in association with autism, but there is significant mental retardation in some three-quarters of cases.
  • There are more than 200 known causes of intellectual disability. Some common examples of intellectual disability are: Down syndrome Autism
  • The attempt by higher functioning persons with ASD's and Aspergers to disassociate "autism" from intellectual disability helps stigmatize persons with intellectual disabilities including the many persons with autistic disorder and intellectual disabilities.
  • And some ND's, to counter the fact that most with LFA are retarded, some "famous" autistics like to promote FC as "proof" that they aren't.
  • My cousin is profoundly autistic. He is around 20 and cannot communicate at all, not verbally or in the written word, and has never said a word. Luckily, his family is smart enough to know that if anyone tries use FC on him they will know it is a scam.If a facilitator told my aunt that P was writing poems and understood Shakespeare she would just laugh. She loves P as he is; she knows reality and doesn't try to force him to be someone he isn't.
  • The current Wikipedia article still shows a frequency of 25-70% incidence of mental retardation in people with autism.
  • Yet, the reader is drawn to see not the high percentage (25% is still very high) but the width of the range, therefore there must be something wrong with the ability of standard tests to measure "autistic intelligence".
  • Mentally retarded IMO comes from the intelligence scales. These do not address the learning styles of all people and are inflexible. I do believe there are better ways to understand how someone learns. I also don't believe there are limits on what we learn, the brain's placisity allows us to learn our entire life.
  • I've spoken hundreds of parents and it worries me that so many have problems accepting their children as they are and will be.For some intelligence is the magic word, a kind of hidden cure inside their child.But autistic kids with a normal IQ which they can use function better than those with high IQ's they can't use.
  • I am only concerned about the cases where the FC person NEVER does ANY kind of independent work, which seem to be the majority of FC cases.
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    It is now politically incorrect to refer to anyone as mentally retarded. The polite and proper term to use now is intellectually disabled. Either way there is very little mention of the fact that many persons with Autism Spectrum Disorder diagnoses are severely intellectually challenged. In the world's autism communities there are many who perceive it as an insult to mention the existence of the intellectually disabled autistic population.
Tero Toivanen

Autism finding could lead to simple urine test for the condition - 0 views

  • The researchers behind the study, from Imperial College London and the University of South Australia, suggest that their findings could ultimately lead to a simple urine test to determine whether or not a young child has autism.
  • People with autism are also known to suffer from gastrointestinal disorders and they have a different makeup of bacteria in their guts from non-autistic people.
  • Today's research shows that it is possible to distinguish between autistic and non-autistic children by looking at the by-products of gut bacteria and the body's metabolic processes in the children's urine. The exact biological significance of gastrointestinal disorders in the development of autism is unknown.
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  • The distinctive urinary metabolic fingerprint for autism identified in today's study could form the basis of a non-invasive test that might help diagnose autism earlier. This would enable autistic children to receive assistance, such as advanced behavioural therapy, earlier in their development than is currently possible.
  • The researchers suggest that their new understanding of the makeup of bacteria in autistic children's guts could also help scientists to develop treatments to tackle autistic people's gastrointestinal problems.
  • Professor Jeremy Nicholson, the corresponding author of the study, who is the Head of the Department of Surgery and Cancer at Imperial College London, said: "Autism is a condition that affects a person's social skills, so at first it might seem strange that there's a relationship between autism and what's happening in someone's gut. However, your metabolism and the makeup of your gut bacteria reflect all sorts of things, including your lifestyle and your genes. Autism affects many different parts of a person's system and our study shows that you can see how it disrupts their system by looking at their metabolism and their gut bacteria.
  • We hope our findings might be the first step towards creating a simple urine test to diagnose autism at a really young age
  • A urine test might enable professionals to quickly identify children with autism and help them early on," he added.
  • The researchers reached their conclusions by using H NMR Spectroscopy to analyse the urine of three groups of children aged between 3 and 9: 39 children who had previously been diagnosed with autism, 28 non-autistic siblings of children with autism, and 34 children who did not have autism who did not have an autistic sibling. They found that each of the three groups had a distinct chemical fingerprint. Non-autistic children with autistic siblings had a different chemical fingerprint than those without any autistic siblings, and autistic children had a different chemical fingerprint than the other two groups.
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    This is interesting finding. Hope it will give results!
Tero Toivanen

Autism Research Blog: Translating Autism: Language and Autism: Do kids with autism make... - 0 views

  • The ASD performed worse than the typically developing group across the entire grammaticality judgment task. However, the authors noted that the groups did NOT differ when the sentences were short or medium length. That is, the apparent relative weaker performance among the ASD group was mostly during long sentences. In addition, these group differences were more pronounced when the error was located at the end of long sentences. This indicates that the group differences may be due to difficulty in working memory and attention among the autism group.
  • However, it is unlikely that these findings are only attributable to working memory problems. Specifically, the ASD groups showed impaired performance only to some type grammatical errors but not others. That is, the ASD group had difficulty identifying omissions and substitution errors, but did not show difficulty identifying order or insertion errors. This suggests that attention and working memory difficulties interact with some unique deficits in grammaticality judgment.
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    Autism Research Blog: Translating Autism: Language and Autism: Do kids with autism make grammatical errors when sentences are long?
Tero Toivanen

12 Tips to Setting up an Autism Classroom « Principal Kendrick - 6 views

  • In a world that’s ever changing, routine and structure provide great comfort to a child on the autism spectrum.  Define routines clearly. 
  • Activities are successful when they’re broken into small steps.
  • Make sure children know what to do if they finish ahead of time.  Typically, children with autism do not use free time productively; therefore strive to have as little downtime between activities as possible.
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  • 2. Use visuals
  • Remember to keep explanations simple and short about each picture or concentration will wane.   Give written instructions instead of verbal whenever you can.  Highlight or underline any text for emphasis.
  • People with autism like order and detail.  They feel in control and secure when they know what to expect
  • Picture schedules are even more powerful because they help a student visualize the actions.
  • Make sure you have this schedule in a very visible place in your classroom and direct the students’ attention to it frequently, particularly a few minutes before you begin the next activity.
  • Written schedules are very effective for good readers.  These can also be typed up and placed on a student’s desk.
  • 4. Reduce distractions
  • Many people with autism find it difficult to filter out background noise and visual information.  Children with autism pay attention to detail.  Wall charts and posters can be very distracting. 
  • Try and seat children away from windows and doors. 
  • 5. Use concrete language
  • Always keep your language simple and concrete.   Get your point across in as few words as possible. 
  • Avoid using idioms.
  • Give very clear choices and try not to leave choices open ended.  You’re bound to get a better result by asking “Do you want to read or draw?” than by asking “What do you want to do now?”
  • 6. It’s not personal
  • Children with autism are not rude.  They simply don’t understand social rules or how they’re supposed to behave.
  • NEVER, ever, speak about a child on the autism spectrum as if they weren’t present
  • Despite the lack of reaction they sometimes present, hearing you speak about them in a negative way will crush their self esteem.
  • 7. Transitions
  • Children on the autism spectrum feel secure when things are constant.  Changing an activity provides a fear of the unknown.  This elevates stress which produces anxiety
  • Reduce the stress of transitions by giving ample warning
  • Using schedules helps with transitions too as students have time to “psyche themselves up” for the changes ahead.
  • People can be slow when they are learning a new skill until they become proficient
  • Encourage your students to ask each other for help and information
  • Making decisions is equally important and this begins by teaching students to make a choice.  Offer two choices. 
  • When giving a directive or asking a question, make sure you allow for extra processing time before offering guidance.  Self help skills are essential to learn
  • Never underestimate the power of consistency.
  • Avoid this temptation and make sure you allow ample time before you abandon an idea.  Remember that consistency is a key component of success.  If you’re teaching a student to control aggression, the same plan should be implemented in all settings, at school and at home.
  • 9. Rewards before consequences
  • We all love being rewarded and people with autism are no different.  Rewards and positive reinforcement are a wonderful way to increase desired behavior
  • If possible, let your students pick their own reward so they can anticipate receiving it.
  • There are many reward systems which include negative responses and typically, these do not work as well.
  • Focusing on negative aspects can often lead to poor results and a de-motivated student.  When used correctly, rewards are very powerful and irresistible
  • Every reward should be showered in praise.  Even though people on the spectrum might not respond typically when praised, they enjoy it just as much as you!
  • 10. Teach with lists
  • Teaching with lists sets clear expectations.  It defines a beginning, middle and an end.
  • People on the autism spectrum respond well to order and lists are no exception.  Almost anything can be taught in a list format.
  • While typical people often think in very abstract format, people on the spectrum have a very organized way of thought.  Finding ways to work within these parameters can escalate the learning curve.    
  • 11. Creative teaching
  • It helps to be creative when you’re teaching students with autism.  People on the spectrum think out of the box and if you do too, you will get great results.
    • Tero Toivanen
       
      Exactly!
  • Often, people with autism have very specific interests.  Use these interests as motivators.
    • Tero Toivanen
       
      This is how I work! It's works!
  • Another great strategy to use is called “Teaching with questions”.  This method keeps students involved, focused and ensures understanding.
  • Another great way of teaching is by adding humor to your lessons.  We all respond to humor.
    • Tero Toivanen
       
      When you feel well, your students feel well also and learn better!
  • 12. Don’t sweat the small stuff
  • The final goal is for children to be happy and to function as independently as possible.
  • Don’t demand eye contact if a student has trouble processing visual and auditory information simultaneously.
    • Tero Toivanen
       
      It may even be painful for the student... There are research about this issue.
  • By correcting every action a person does, you’re sending a message that they’re not good enough the way they are.  When making a decision about what to correct, always ask yourself first, “Will correcting this action help this person lead a productive and happy life?”
Tero Toivanen

Autism disorders might be reversible. | - I Teach Autism.com - - 0 views

  • Scientists at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have proposed a sweeping new theory of autism that suggests that the brains of people with autism are structurally normal but dysregulated, meaning symptoms of the disorder might be reversible.
  • The central tenet of the theory, published in the March issue of Brain Research Reviews, is that autism is a developmental disorder caused by impaired regulation of the locus coeruleus, a bundle of neurons in the brain stem that processes sensory signals from all areas of the body.
  • The new theory stems from decades of anecdotal observations that some autistic children seem to improve when they have a fever, only to regress when the fever ebbs.
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  • Einstein researchers contend that scientific evidence directly points to the locus coeruleus–noradrenergic (LC-NA) system as being involved in autism. “The LC-NA system is the only brain system involved both in producing fever and controlling behavior,” says co-author Dominick P. Purpura, M.D., dean emeritus and distinguished professor of neuroscience at Einstein.
  • The locus coeruleus has widespread connections to brain regions that process sensory information.
  • It is also involved in a variety of complex behaviors, such as attentional focusing (the ability to concentrate attention on environmental cues relevant to the task in hand, or to switch attention from one task to another).
  • “What is unique about the locus coeruleus is that it activates almost all higher-order brain centers that are involved in complex cognitive tasks,” says Dr. Mehler.
  • Drs. Purpura and Mehler hypothesize that in autism, the LC-NA system is dysregulated by the interplay of environment, genetic, and epigenetic factors (chemical substances both within as well as outside the genome that regulate the expression of genes). They believe that stress plays a central role in dysregulation of the LC-NA system, especially in the latter stages of prenatal development when the fetal brain is particularly vulnerable.
  • Drs. Purpura and Mehler believe that, in autistic children, fever stimulates the LC-NA system, temporarily restoring its normal regulatory function.
  • the future of autism treatment probably lies in drugs that selectively target certain types of noradrenergic brain receptors or, more likely, in epigenetic therapies targeting genes of the LC-NA system.
  • “You can’t take a complex neuropsychiatric disease that has escaped our understanding for 50 years and in one fell swoop have a therapy that is going to reverse it — that’s folly. On the other hand, we now have clues to the neurobiology, the genetics, and the epigenetics of autism. To move forward, we need to invest more money in basic science to look at the genome and the epigenome in a more focused way.”
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    Scientists at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have proposed a sweeping new theory of autism that suggests that the brains of people with autism are structurally normal but dysregulated, meaning symptoms of the disorder might be reversible.
Tero Toivanen

Autism Research Blog: Translating Autism: Expressive communication in children with sev... - 0 views

  • Given that the rate of elicited expressive communication in the present study is much lower than the suggested rate of teacher prompt, it can be assumed that teachers of students with autism do not actively promote their students’ expressive communication.
  • The results also indicate that verbal prompts and a combination of verbal prompts and modeling were the most commonly used instruction. However, simple (non-combined) prompts were most effective in eliciting a communicative response with kids with the most severe autism. But most surprisingly, physical prompts did not seem to be as effective as verbal prompts, which may also explain why verbal prompts were use significantly more by these teachers.
  • In sum, the study has implications for the type of techniques that are effective in eliciting communicative responses in children with severe autism. In this study simple verbal prompts and modeling were the most effective strategy to elicit communicative responses in these children.Chiang, H. (2009). Naturalistic observations of elicited expressive communication of children with autism: An analysis of teacher instructions Autism, 13 (2), 165-178 DOI: 10.1177/1362361308098513
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    In sum, the study has implications for the type of techniques that are effective in eliciting communicative responses in children with severe autism. In this study simple verbal prompts and modeling were the most effective strategy to elicit communicative responses in these children.
Tero Toivanen

Autism Research Blog: Translating Autism: Vision problems in autism: Reduced convergence? - 0 views

  • The authors found that 11% of the typically developing children and 31% of the ASD had a documented visual impairment (myopia, astigmatism, etc). This difference was statistically significant. That is, children with ASD were significantly more likely than typically developing children to have these conditions. Children with autism also displayed significantly poorer visual acuity (but within normal limits), and lower convergence. Convergence refers to the process by which the eyes move towards each other to maintain focus on approaching or close-range objects.
  • The findings of reduced visual acuity in children with autism when compared to typically developing children contradict previous studies that have shown enhanced visual acuity in autism. This brings us to a major limitation of this study that was correctly noted by the authors.
  • Limited convergence therefore would be associated with more limited depth perception. I find this intriguing because the neuropsychological profile of children with high functioning autism is often very similar to what is observed in kids with non-verbal learning disabilities (including relative weaknesses in motor-visual functioning). In addition, many parents with children with ASD report that their kids have trouble with sports and other physical activities. I thus wonder how much the reduced convergence observed in ASD may affect the motor-visual functioning in autism.
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  • Clinically, I was also intrigued by the high rates of vision problems found among the ASD group. Although, as I mentioned, this may be due to a self-selection of the parents who agreed to participate, this is consistent with data suggesting that children with developmental disorders are more likely to have visual problems than typically developing children
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    Analysis of visual functioning in children with autism suggests impairment in visual convergence. A brief review of: Elizabeth Milne, Helen Griffiths, David Buckley, Alison Scope (2009). Vision in Children and Adolescents with Autistic Spectrum Disorder: Evidence for Reduced Convergence Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders DOI: 10.1007/s10803-009-0705-8
Tero Toivanen

Research on the genomics of autism from the Center for Biom - 0 views

  • Research on the genomics of autism from the Center for Biomedical Informatics at The Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia indicated that several genes and genomic variants contribute to autism. The gene alterations are rare but when they are in play, they seem to disrupt genes that are significantly involved in brain development and nerve signaling.
  • According to the September 15, 2010 issue of Science Translational Medicine, males with certain DNA alterations to their X-chromosome are at high risk of having autism.
  • This research was performed at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) and The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), in Toronto Canada.
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  • One percent of boys with autism involved in the study had mutations in the PTCHD1 gene on the X-chromosome. No boys without autism showed this mutation.
  • Girls who also had this mutation did not seem to exhibit autistic traits. It appears that girls may be protected from developing autism because they have a second X-chromosome.
  • Still these girls could be carriers, passing on the mutation to their children. Their sons could then have autism.
  • Certain rare genetic variants were found 20 percent more in children with autism than in other children. Researchers also discovered new disruptions, where a child of non-autistic parents had autism.
  • t appears that some children have private genetic mutations not passed on genetically, and this leaves them more susceptible to autism. Interestingly, each child showed a different disturbance in a different gene.
  • Researchers hope to gain more information as they identify groups of disrupted genes. Ultimately they hope to be able to develop treatments for autism.
Tero Toivanen

New Theory Of Autism Suggests Symptoms Or Disorder May Be Reversible - 0 views

  • the brains of people with autism are structurally normal but dysregulated, meaning symptoms of the disorder might be reversible.
  • autism is a developmental disorder caused by impaired regulation of the locus coeruleus, a bundle of neurons in the brain stem that processes sensory signals from all areas of the body.
  • The new theory stems from decades of anecdotal observations that some autistic children seem to improve when they have a fever, only to regress when the fever ebbs.
  • ...11 more annotations...
  • This study documented that autistic children experience behavior changes during fever.
  • Einstein researchers contend that scientific evidence directly points to the locus coeruleus–noradrenergic (LC-NA) system as being involved in autism. "The LC-NA system is the only brain system involved both in producing fever and controlling behavior," says co-author Dominick P. Purpura, M.D., dean emeritus and distinguished professor of neuroscience at Einstein.
  • The locus coeruleus has widespread connections to brain regions that process sensory information. It secretes most of the brain's noradrenaline, a neurotransmitter that plays a key role in arousal mechanisms, such as the "fight or flight" response. It is also involved in a variety of complex behaviors, such as attentional focusing (the ability to concentrate attention on environmental cues relevant to the task in hand, or to switch attention from one task to another). Poor attentional focusing is a defining characteristic of autism.
  • "What is unique about the locus coeruleus is that it activates almost all higher-order brain centers that are involved in complex cognitive tasks," says Dr. Mehler.
  • autism, the LC-NA system is dysregulated by the interplay of environment, genetic, and epigenetic factors
  • They believe that stress plays a central role in dysregulation of the LC-NA system, especially in the latter stages of prenatal development when the fetal brain is particularly vulnerable.
  • a higher incidence of autism among children whose mothers had been exposed to hurricanes and tropical storms during pregnancy.
  • autistic children, fever stimulates the LC-NA system, temporarily restoring its normal regulatory function. "This could not happen if autism was caused by a lesion or some structural abnormality of the brain," says Dr. Purpura.
  • future of autism treatment probably lies in drugs that selectively target certain types of noradrenergic brain receptors or, more likely, in epigenetic therapies targeting genes of the LC-NA system.
  • If the locus coeruleus is impaired in autism, it is probably because tens or hundreds, maybe even thousands, of genes are dysregulated in subtle and complex ways," says Dr. Mehler. "The only way you can reverse this process is with epigenetic therapies, which, we are beginning to learn, have the ability to coordinate very large integrated gene networks."
  • "You can't take a complex neuropsychiatric disease that has escaped our understanding for 50 years and in one fell swoop have a therapy that is going to reverse it — that's folly. On the other hand, we now have clues to the neurobiology, the genetics, and the epigenetics of autism. To move forward, we need to invest more money in basic science to look at the genome and the epigenome in a more focused way."
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    the brains of people with autism are structurally normal but dysregulated, meaning symptoms of the disorder might be reversible.
Tero Toivanen

Autism Research Blog: Translating Autism: Eyes aversion in autism may affect face recog... - 0 views

  • A brief review of Annaz, D., Karmiloff-Smith, A., Johnson, M., & Thomas, M. (2009). A cross-syndrome study of the development of holistic face recognition in children with autism, Down syndrome, and Williams syndrome Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 102 (4), 456-486 DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2008.11.005
  • 33 kids with autism
  • 15 children with Williams syndrome
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  • 15 children with down’s syndrome
  • 25 typically developing children
  • The authors found that all three diagnostic groups showed anomalies in the development of face recognition when compared to typically developing kids.
  • The children with low (but not high) functioning autism show a disadvantage for identifying eyes but an advantage for identifying mouths. In addition, they were better at identifying eyes and noses when the these were upside down than when they were upside up. This is the opposite of what is expected in typically developing children.
  • The authors discussed how this may be due to an aversion to looking directly at eyes, especially in upright faces. Therefore, the observed deficiencies in face recognition among the low functioning autism group may not be due to problems in the development of whole face recognition processes per se, but instead this weakness may be due to a natural aversion to stare at the eyes area of the face.
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    Eyes aversion in autism may affect face recognition
Tero Toivanen

Autism Research Blog: Translating Autism: Autism, neurofeedback , and the processing of... - 0 views

  • Children with autism show increased reaction time and unique brain wave patters during tasks that include novel distracters.
  • Children with autism show increased reaction time and unique brain wave patters during tasks that include novel distracters.
  • The participants completed an Odd-Ball task. In this task, the participants are asked to press a key when they see the target letter ( "X" ) on a computer screen. This target letter is presented 25% of the trials. For 50% of the trials a common distracter (the letter "O") is presented instead. For the remaining 25%, a set of novel distracters are presented (different symbols). The researchers recorded the reaction time, accuracy, and brain electrical functioning during the task.
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  • The results showed that participants with autism were slower to press on the key when the target X was presented than typically developing peers. However, the groups did not differ in accuracy of responding.
  • That is, both groups were equally accurate in responding to the X target, but the group with autism showed a slower patter of responses. The group with autism also showed a different pattern of brain activation when confronted with the novel distracters. Their differences were observed in both hemispheres, but were stronger in the right frontal regions. The pattern of responses observed (longer latencies and higher amplitudes) suggest greater effort when processing novel stimuli. This finding is intriguing because the brain response patterns to the other stimuli (target X and the common distracter O) were identical between the groups. These results suggest that the group with autism had difficulty processing and disengaging from novel distracting stimuli.
  • In neurofeedback, the person receives real-time feedback on their brain functioning and is taught how to progressively modify their responses. However, the debate regarding the effectiveness of neurofeedback is ongoing as the research is limited and highly contradictory.
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    Children with autism show increased reaction time and unique brain wave patters during tasks that include novel distracters.
Tero Toivanen

NIMH · Autism Spectrum Disorders (Pervasive Developmental Disorders) - 0 views

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    Autism Spectrum Disorders (Pervasive Developmental Disorders) * Introduction * What Are the Autism Spectrum Disorders? * The Diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorders * Treatment Options * Adults with an Autism Spectrum Disorder * Research into Causes and Treatment of Autism Spectrum Disorders * References
Tero Toivanen

A week ago, a new study published in the Archives of General - 0 views

  • The Howard Hughes Medical Institute describes how researchers using "high-throughput gene sequencing technology" were able to identify several de novo or spontaneous gene mutations in 20 children with sporadic autism spectrum disorders -- that is, their family members showed no other sign of autism.
  • The team identified 21 spontaneous mutations -- meaning they weren't inherited from either parent -- in the children's DNA. Eleven of these were mutations that would alter the protein encoded by the affected gene. In four of the 20 children, the researchers found mutations that were severe, some of which have been previously linked to autism, intellectual disability, and epilepsy.
  • one child had a mutation in the GRIN2B gene, which is crucial for neuronal signaling.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • Another individual had an extra nucleotide in FOXP1, a gene that, along with its close relatives, has been heavily implicated in language defects.
  • These new findings support the 'multi-hit' model of autism, which suggests that having more than one mutation can cause or worsen symptoms of autism and other brain disorders. The different combinations of mutations may contribute to the heterogeneity in ASDs.
  • That such different combinations of genetic mutations contribute to a child being autistic could account for why individuals with an ASD diagnosis have some very similar, and very different, features.
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    "The Howard Hughes Medical Institute describes how researchers using "high-throughput gene sequencing technology" were able to identify several de novo or spontaneous gene mutations in 20 children with sporadic autism spectrum disorders -- that is, their family members showed no other sign of autism."
Tero Toivanen

Autism Vaccines - Mercury and Autism Vaccines - 1 views

  • The type of mercury used in thimerosal is generally cleared from the body within six weeks, which in theory would render it harmless. But according to those researchers who believe that the preservative causes autism, babies born during that 20-year window were injected with many times the "safe" level as determined by the FDA -- and some, they feel, were genetically incapable of clearing the doses of mercury from their bodies. Mercury is, in fact, a neurotoxin, and the theory is that the recent leap in autism diagnoses can be directly tied to thimerosal.
  • In 2004, the Institute of Medicine undertook a comprehensive review of all the published literature on thimerosal and autism and concluded that the available evidence demonstrate that there was no link. The CDC launched a series of studies that examined the relationship between the incidence of autism and the amount of mercury a child received in the first 6 months of life and also found no relationship. Although all published credible studies have found no link between thimerosal and autism, some continue to be unconvinced.
  • At present, the thimerosal controversy continues, even though the removal of thimerosal from vaccines has not resulted in lower rates of autism diagnoses.
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    At present, the thimerosal controversy continues, even though the removal of thimerosal from vaccines has not resulted in lower rates of autism diagnoses. Parents who continue to be concerned should be aware that thimerosal has now been removed from most vaccines -- and thimerosal-free vaccines are available across the board.
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

Real Autism - What Is Real Autism - 0 views

  • Here are answers from a top expert, Dr. Susan Levy of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
  • Dr. Levy says, while about 80% of autism is idiopathic (of unknown cause), there are at present many known causes of autism including FAS, rubella, Fragile X Syndrome, and more. In addition, according to a a report published in Pediatrics in 2009 entitled "Prevalence of parent-reported diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder among children in the US, 2007," as many as 40% of children who received an autism spectrum disorder at some point in their lives are no longer diagnosable on the autism spectrum.
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    Here are answers from a top expert, Dr. Susan Levy of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
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