Re: Eye Contact Triggers Threat Signals in Autistic Children's Brains

December 26, 2006

Well...just imagine ..the useful studies like this one that will get all that

money from the " Combating Autism Act " bill. I do not see how research like

this will make any meaningful contribution to improving the lives of autistic

children. " Training " is for animals ..not children.

Stacey

From: " E. Stoecker " <emilystoecker@...>

Date: 2006/12/25 Mon AM 06:22:58 CST

" Stoecker@... " <Stoecker@...>

Subject: Eye Contact Triggers Threat Signals in Autistic Children's

Brains

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Eye Contact Triggers Threat Signals In Autistic Children's

Brains

Science Daily — MADISON - Brain tests at the University of

Wisconsin-Madison suggest that autistic children shy from eye contact

because they perceive even the most familiar face as an uncomfortable

threat.

A UW-Madison study found that autistic children avoid eye contact

because they may see even familiar faces as threats. The circles show

where on a face the study subjects gazed, with larger circles indicating

a longer gaze time. The straight lines show eye movement. The black dot

in the depicted brain slice at the bottom right hand corner is the

amygdala cluster, which showed greater activation in autistic

individuals. (Photo: courtesy son)

The work deepens understanding of an autistic brain's function and may

one day inform new treatment approaches and augment how teachers

interact with their autistic students.

Tracking the correlation between eye movements and brain activity, the

researchers found that in autistic subjects, the amygdala - an emotion

center in the brain associated with negative feelings - lights up to an

abnormal extent during a direct gaze upon a non-threatening face.

Writing in the March 6 issue of the journal Nature Neuroscience, the

scientists also report that because autistic children avert eye contact,

the brain's fusiform region, which is critical for face perception, is

less active than it would be during a normally developing child's

stare.

" This is the very first published study that assesses how individuals

with autism look at faces while simultaneously monitoring which of their

brain areas are active, " says lead author Kim Dalton, an assistant

scientist at UW-Madison's Waisman Laboratory for Brain Imaging and

Behavior. Dalton measured eye movements in conjunction with magnetic

resonance imaging (MRI), a sophisticated technology that allows

researchers to " see " a brain in action.

Notably, the UW-Madison study overturns the existing notion that

autistic children struggle to process faces because of a malfunction in

the fusiform area. Rather, in autistic children the fusiform " is

fundamentally normal " and shows only stunted activity because

over-aroused amygdalas make autistic children want to look away, says

senior author son, a UW-Madison psychiatry and psychology

professor who has earned international recognition for his work on the

neural underpinnings of emotion.

" Imagine walking through the world and interpreting every face that

looks at you as a threat, even the face of your own mother, " son

adds. Scientists have in the past speculated that the amygdala - which

has been implicated in certain anxiety and mood disorders - plays a role

in autism, but the study directly supports that idea for the first

time.

An increasingly publicized developmental disability, autism greatly

weakens the capacity to socialize and communicate normally. The tendency

to avoid eye contact is one of the most pervasive traits among autistic

children, says Dalton. The characteristic is a problem because eyes, in

particular, are a crucial source of " subtle cues that are critical for

normal social and emotional development, " Dalton says.

Dalton's work comprised two studies. In the first, researchers placed

autistic children inside an MRI scanner and showed them pictures of

faces with both emotional and neutral expressions. The children had to

press one of two buttons to indicate whether a face showed a blank or

expressive face. Throughout the process, the researchers used precise

eye-tracking technology to measure exactly which parts of the face study

participants were looking at and for how long. Normally developing

children far outpaced the autistic study participants in identifying

expressions correctly.

During the second study, the researchers again placed subjects in MRI

machines and showed them photographs of both familiar and unfamiliar

faces. They monitored eye movements and brain activity, and once again,

autistic subjects performed considerably more poorly than normally

developing participants.

In the future, the findings could help scientists " train autistic

children to look at a person's eye region in a more strategic way, like

when the person may not be looking directly at them, " says son.

Researchers eventually could assess whether such approaches improve the

ability to make eye contact and whether they might even induce positive

developmental changes in the brain.

Because autism is more inheritable than any other psychiatric condition,

researchers also could start to explore the genetic mechanisms

underlying hyperactive amygdalas - " a completely uncharted research

territory, " says son. And if the autistic amygdala is found to be

overactive from infancy, the knowledge could help doctors implement

intervention approaches right from an early age.

Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by

University Of Wisconsin-Madison.

<a

href= " http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/03/050309151153.htm " >http://www.\

sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/03/050309151153.htm</a>

- Stoecker

<a href= " mailto:Stoecker%40TMail.com " >Stoecker@TMail.com</a>

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December 28, 2006

I hate to tell you this, but when you raise your children with or without autism you are training them. They learn from us as they grow. Children with autism need more training and more teaching and tons of more love and understanding. Do what is best for your child not what is best for you. mother of Blake now 15 yrs.all4cam@... wrote: Well...just imagine ..the useful studies like this one that will get all that money from the " Combating

Autism Act" bill. I do not see how research like this will make any meaningful contribution to improving the lives of autistic children. "Training" is for animals ..not children.StaceyFrom: " E. Stoecker" <emilystoeckertmail>Date: 2006/12/25 Mon AM 06:22:58 CST"StoeckerTmail" <StoeckerTmail>Subject: Eye Contact Triggers Threat Signals in Autistic Children's Brains<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd"><html><head></head><body style="background-color:

#ffffff;"><div id="ygrp-mlmsg" style="width:655px; position:relative;"><div id="ygrp-msg" style="width: 490px; padding: 0 15px 0 0; float:left; z-index:1;"><div id="ygrp-text">Eye Contact Triggers Threat Signals In Autistic Children's Brains Science Daily — MADISON - Brain tests at the University of Wisconsin-Madison suggest that autistic children shy from eye contact because they perceive even the most familiar face as an uncomfortable threat. A UW-Madison study found that autistic children avoid eye contact because they may see even familiar faces as threats. The circles show where on a face the study subjects gazed, with larger circles indicating a longer gaze

time. The straight lines show eye movement. The black dot in the depicted brain slice at the bottom right hand corner is the amygdala cluster, which showed greater activation in autistic individuals. (Photo: courtesy son) The work deepens understanding of an autistic brain's function and may one day inform new treatment approaches and augment how teachers interact with their autistic students. Tracking the correlation between eye movements and brain activity, the researchers found that in autistic subjects, the amygdala - an emotion center in the brain associated with negative feelings - lights up to an abnormal extent during a direct gaze upon a non-threatening face. Writing in the March 6 issue of the journal Nature Neuroscience, the scientists also report that

because autistic children avert eye contact, the brain's fusiform region, which is critical for face perception, is less active than it would be during a normally developing child's stare. "This is the very first published study that assesses how individuals with autism look at faces while simultaneously monitoring which of their brain areas are active," says lead author Kim Dalton, an assistant scientist at UW-Madison's Waisman Laboratory for Brain Imaging and Behavior. Dalton measured eye movements in conjunction with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), a sophisticated technology that allows researchers to "see" a brain in action. Notably, the UW-Madison study overturns the existing notion that autistic children struggle to process faces because of a malfunction in the

fusiform area. Rather, in autistic children the fusiform "is fundamentally normal" and shows only stunted activity because over-aroused amygdalas make autistic children want to look away, says senior author son, a UW-Madison psychiatry and psychology professor who has earned international recognition for his work on the neural underpinnings of emotion. "Imagine walking through the world and interpreting every face that looks at you as a threat, even the face of your own mother," son adds. Scientists have in the past speculated that the amygdala - which has been implicated in certain anxiety and mood disorders - plays a role in autism, but the study directly supports that idea for the first time. An increasingly publicized developmental disability, autism greatly

weakens the capacity to socialize and communicate normally. The tendency to avoid eye contact is one of the most pervasive traits among autistic children, says Dalton. The characteristic is a problem because eyes, in particular, are a crucial source of "subtle cues that are critical for normal social and emotional development," Dalton says. Dalton's work comprised two studies. In the first, researchers placed autistic children inside an MRI scanner and showed them pictures of faces with both emotional and neutral expressions. The children had to press one of two buttons to indicate whether a face showed a blank or expressive face. Throughout the process, the researchers used precise eye-tracking technology to measure exactly which parts of the face study participants were looking

at and for how long. Normally developing children far outpaced the autistic study participants in identifying expressions correctly. During the second study, the researchers again placed subjects in MRI machines and showed them photographs of both familiar and unfamiliar faces. They monitored eye movements and brain activity, and once again, autistic subjects performed considerably more poorly than normally developing participants. In the future, the findings could help scientists "train autistic children to look at a person's eye region in a more strategic way, like when the person may not be looking directly at them," says son. Researchers eventually could assess whether such approaches improve the ability to make eye contact and whether they might even induce positive

developmental changes in the brain. Because autism is more inheritable than any other psychiatric condition, researchers also could start to explore the genetic mechanisms underlying hyperactive amygdalas - "a completely uncharted research territory," says son. And if the autistic amygdala is found to be overactive from infancy, the knowledge could help doctors implement intervention approaches right from an early age. Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by University Of Wisconsin-Madison. <a href="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/03/050309151153.htm">http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/03/050309151153.htm</a> - Stoecker <a href="mailto:Stoecker%40TMail.com">Stoecker@TMail.com</a> </div> </body><head><style type="text/css"><!--#ygrp-mlmsg {font-size:13px; font-family: arial,helvetica,clean,sans-serif;*font-size:small;*font:x-small;}#ygrp-mlmsg table {font-size:inherit;font:100%;}#ygrp-mlmsg select, input, textarea {font:99%

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0;font-size: 77%;}#ygrp-sponsor #ov li a{text-decoration: none;font-size: 130%;}#ygrp-sponsor #nc {background-color: #eee;margin-bottom: 20px;padding: 0 8px;}#ygrp-sponsor .ad{padding: 8px 0;}#ygrp-sponsor .ad #hd1{font-family: Arial;font-weight: bold;color: #628c2a;font-size: 100%;line-height: 122%;}#ygrp-sponsor .ad a{text-decoration: none;}#ygrp-sponsor .ad a:hover{text-decoration: underline;}#ygrp-sponsor .ad p{margin: 0;}o {font-size: 0; }.MsoNormal {margin: 0 0 0 0;}#ygrp-text tt{font-size: 120%;}blockquote{margin: 0 0 0 4px;}.replbq {margin:4}--></style></head></html> __________________________________________________

December 29, 2006

all4cam@... wrote:

Well...just imagine ..the useful studies like this one that will

get all that money from the " Combating Autism Act" bill. I do not see

how research like this will make any meaningful contribution to

improving the lives of autistic children. "Training" is for animals

...not children.

..

I am sorry that you see it this way. Training is for everyone. And we

are not somehow better than animals; any more than NT people are

somehow better than people with autism.

R

January 1, 2007

I have a good friend who is possibly the world's best mother. When she

was being interviewed by the social services agency prior to adopting

her daughter, she repeatedly made reference to her experience in

training dogs as preparation for motherhood. The agency nearly refused

her application until a more enlightened member investigated her

experience and training (oops, there's that word) in behavior

management. My point is that people who react to a word like training

should look more deeply into what training really is. I do train my

dogs, using sound ABA principles, much as I train my students. I am

able to use ABA because I have been trained in applied behavior

analysis myself. I just cannot see training as a bad thing or

a bad word.

R

January 4, 2007

Can the subject line reflect the conversation in the group? I click these on and they have nothing to do with eye contact. Thanks Bonnie Sayers http://autismspectrumdisorders.bellaonline.com ============= <oldtintype@...> wrote: I've been living with Border Collies for 13 years now. For those of you not familiar with the breed, they're considered

probably the smartest dog in the world, bred to run hundreds of miles per day .

January 4, 2007

Can the subject line reflect the conversation in the group? I click these on and they have nothing to do with eye contact. Thanks Bonnie Sayers http://autismspectrumdisorders.bellaonline.com ============= <oldtintype@...> wrote: I've been living with Border Collies for 13 years now. For those of you not familiar with the breed, they're considered

probably the smartest dog in the world, bred to run hundreds of miles per day .

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