How to unleash your brain's inner genius - life - 03 June 2009 - New Scientist - 0 views
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A flurry of research published earlier this year in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B paints a very different picture. It turns out that these skills are far more common than previously thought. They may even arise from traits found in the general population, implying that savants are not fundamentally different from the rest of us. What's more, these skills may only blossom after years of obsessive practice, raising the question of whether many more people might cultivate similar skills, if only they had the motivation.
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One of the biggest clues to the origins of savant talent lies in the fact that savants are far more common within the autistic population than among people with other mental difficulties.
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Previously, about 1 in 10 people with autism were thought to have a special ability but in April, Patricia Howlin at the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London found a much higher figure in the autistic adults she surveyed for savant skills or an exceptional cognitive ability.
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A Radical New Autism Theory - Page 1 - The Daily Beast - 0 views
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. As posited by Henry and Kamila Markram of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, suggests that the fundamental problem in autism-spectrum disorders is not a social deficiency, but rather an hypersensitivity to experience, which includes an overwhelming fear response.
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“There are those who say autistic people don’t feel enough,” says Kamila Markram. “We’re saying exactly the opposite: They feel too much.” Virtually all people with ASD report various types of oversensitivity and intense fear
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“I think most people with ASD feel emotional empathy and care about the welfare of others very deeply.”
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News from the Associated Press - newsjournalonline.com - 0 views
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Leo Lytel was diagnosed with autism as a toddler. But by age 9 he had overcome the disorder. His progress is part of a growing body of research that suggests at least 10 percent of children with autism can "recover" from it - most of them after undergoing years of intensive behavioral therapy.
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She presented research this week at an autism conference in Chicago that included 20 children who, according to rigorous analysis, got a correct diagnosis but years later were no longer considered autistic.
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Skeptics question the phenomenon, but University of Connecticut psychology professor Deborah Fein is among those convinced it's real.
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Asperger Syndrome Tied to Low Cortisol Levels - 0 views
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Low levels of a stress hormone may be responsible for the obsession with routine and dislike for new experiences common in children with a certain type of autism.
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The body produces cortisol, among other hormones, in stressful situations. Cortisol increases blood pressure and blood sugar levels, among other duties, to signal the body's need to adapt to changes occurring around it.
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People with Asperger syndrome notably have very repetitive or narrow patterns of thought and behavior, such as being obsessed with either a single object or topic. Though tending to become experts in this limited domain, they have otherwise very limited social skills, according to the study.
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Harvey Karp: Cracking the Autism Riddle: Toxic Chemicals, A Serious Suspect in the Auti... - 0 views
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One group of substances of particular concern is a ubiquitous family of hormone twisting compounds, known as endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs).
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Our exposure to EDCs is no mere theoretical concern. In 2000, a Centers for Disease Control (CDC) study found detectable phthalates in 99.9% of adults including women of childbearing age.
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there is evidence that even minuscule amounts of these chemicals -- levels commonly present in a woman's body -- may disturb fetal brain development during highly sensitive periods of neural development known as windows of vulnerability.
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The presence of EDCs in women of child-bearing age is especially worrisome. That is because there is evidence that even minuscule amounts of these chemicals -- levels commonly present in a woman's body -- may disturb fetal brain development during highly sensitive periods of neural development known as windows of vulnerability.
Common Treatment Ineffective for Autism | Brain Blogger - 0 views
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The selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are among the most widely used drugs for autism treatment, even though the effectiveness to date has been questionable. A new study published in the June issue of Archives of General Psychiatry reports that, not only are SSRIs ineffective, they may actually cause unintended side effects.
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At the conclusion of the trial, nearly one-third (32.9%) of the patients receiving citalopram showed improvement in symptoms, but this was not significantly different from the 34.2% of patients who showed symptom improvement with placebo. Further, patients receiving citalopram were more likely to experience side effects, including nightmares, increased energy level, impulsiveness, decreased concentration, hyperactivity, diarrhea, insomnia, and dry skin than patients receiving placebo.
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The selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are among the most widely used drugs for autism treatment, even though the effectiveness to date has been questionable. A new study published in the June issue of Archives of General Psychiatry reports that, not only are SSRIs ineffective, they may actually cause unintended side effects.
The link between autism and extraordinary ability | Genius locus | The Economist - 0 views
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A study published this week by Patricia Howlin of King’s College, London, reinforces this point. It suggests that as many as 30% of autistic people have some sort of savant-like capability in areas such as calculation or music.
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Francesca Happé of King’s College, London, is one of them. As she observes, obsessional interests and repetitive behaviours would allow someone to practice, albeit inadvertently, whichever skill they were obsessed by. Malcolm Gladwell, in a book called “Outliers” which collated research done on outstanding people, suggested that anyone could become an expert in anything by practising for 10,000 hours. It would not be hard for an autistic individual to clock up that level of practice for the sort of skills, such as mathematical puzzles, that many neurotypicals would rapidly give up on.
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Simon Baron-Cohen, a doyen of the field who works at Cambridge University, draws similar conclusions. He suggests the secret of becoming a savant is “hyper-systematising and hyper-attention to detail”. But he adds sensory hypersensitivity to the list. His team have shown one example of this using what is known as the Freiburg visual acuity and contrast test, which asks people to identify the gap in a letter “c” presented in four different orientations. Those on the autistic spectrum do significantly better at this than do neurotypicals. That might help explain Dr Happé’s observations about coins and raindrops.
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A study published this week by Patricia Howlin of King's College, London, reinforces this point. It suggests that as many as 30% of autistic people have some sort of savant-like capability in areas such as calculation or music. Moreover, it is widely acknowledged that some of the symptoms associated with autism, including poor communication skills and an obsession with detail, are also exhibited by many creative types, particularly in the fields of science, engineering, music, drawing and painting.
Autism Vaccines - Mercury and Autism Vaccines - 1 views
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
Researchers from the CHUM Research Centre (CRCHUM) have iden - 0 views
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The results show for the first time the role of the SYN1 gene in autism, in addition to epilepsy, and strengthen the hypothesis that a deregulation of the function of synapse because of this mutation is the cause of both diseases
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until now, no other genetic study of humans has made this demonstration.
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The different forms of autism are often genetic in origin and nearly a third of people with autism also suffer from epilepsy.
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Oxytocin improves brain function in children with autism - 1 views
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"Preliminary results from an ongoing, large-scale study by Yale School of Medicine researchers shows that oxytocin -- a naturally occurring substance produced in the brain and throughout the body -- increased brain function in regions that are known to process social information in children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders (ASD)."
Autism Research Blog: Translating Autism: Eyes aversion in autism may affect face recog... - 0 views
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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
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33 kids with autism
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15 children with Williams syndrome
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Autism Research Blog: Translating Autism: Vision problems in autism: Reduced convergence? - 0 views
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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.
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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.
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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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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
Easter Seals and Autism » Blog Archive » Looking for hard evidence on P.L.... - 1 views
Genes implicated in twins' autism | The Autism News - 1 views
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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.
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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.
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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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Facing Autism in New Brunswick: In Future Will Autism Spectrum Disorders Be Referred To... - 2 views
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f brain connectivity is the biological problem that gives rise to autism disorders will effective treatments and cures be developed targeting the connectivity issues?
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'People have started to look at autism as a developmental disconnection syndrome - there are either too many connections or too few connections between different parts of the brain,' says Sahin.
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Sahin hopes that the brain's miswiring can be corrected by drugs targeting the molecular pathways that cause it.
A week ago, a new study published in the Archives of General - 0 views
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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.
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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.
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one child had a mutation in the GRIN2B gene, which is crucial for neuronal signaling.
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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."
Journal of Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment - Dove Press - 0 views
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These results suggest that nonverbal children have specifically impaired imitation and pointing skills.
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