Re: Article portion on Autism

[Guest guest]

"Some parts of the brain, like the frontal lobe and the amygdala, may develop too fast in early childhood, possible because cells become overwrapped in an insulating layer that may facilitate growth, says neuroscientist Amaral of the M.I.N.D. Institute at the University of California at . Exactly how these changes cause symptoms- social impariemtns, repetitive behaviors, poor language skills- is uncertain, alhtough the frontal lobe is known to regulate behavior and the amygdala, anxiety. Researchers believe that autism has both genetic and environmental causes."

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's comment:

"I have noticed many studies linking the rise in Asthma and allergies and other things to children living in very hygienic surroundings. Simply put, the child's immune system has nothing to do so it attacks otherwise innocuous agents or even the body itself. Could it be that the mothers, who are also living in very hygienic conditions, could be seeing a variant? That is to say, their immune systems, having nothing else to do, see the fetus as something bad and attack it?"

Tom's comment:

I have an alternative theory which fits in nicely with the scientific facts.

1) The research into the autistic genome wipes out environment as a cause or trigger for autism. However, it IS factually correct that "Some parts of the brain, like the frontal lobe and the amygdala, may develop too fast in early childhood possibly because cells become overwrapped in an insulating layer that may facilitate growth."

So I am thinking that...

2) When an autistic child is born, since it has no social need other than to tell its parents when something is wrong, ONLY the parts of the brain that the brain believes will be useful in the future actually develop: I.e. intelligence and other related areas. In the meantime, a dependency on parents and status quo in the environment become more of a need for the child for a longer span of the child's life since that part of the brain remains undeveloped. The ability of an autistic child to overcome this problem is dependent upon the brain's ability to adapt as time goes on.

3) An impairment to the further development of the brain would be ever shifting social "norms" and a lack of sympathy of others to make allowances for the delayed development in autistics.

Put simply, if one regards the lack of social skills as a disability, the only reason it IS a disability is the refusal of those who do have socially developed brains to accommodate those without social skills. Ironically, due to the lack of social skills that autstics wind up having, the area of the brain that may develop well beyond the norm (the portions of the brain where the intellect lies) gets disregarded by the socially developed folk, and this may cause intellectual development to stop or slow down at some point also, which would explain why it is we have socially inept people on the spectrum who may also have intellectual impairments.

Tom

Administrator

[Guest guest]

I think that they are on the right track. If As and autism are genetic in origin, then that means there will be differences from the beginning. The genes would favor the brain developing in one way or another. Therefore, the brain development described in the article would simply be the natural expression of the genes.

Now, it is possible to influence brain development and cause certain parts of the brain to grow a little larger or to atrophy. But at such a young age as in the article, I would think that would be primarily genetic.

But I don't think that most Aspies are immune from wanting social contacts. I think that most do, it is just that they have trouble going about, which can isolate them and make them turn inward. It is true that we might be able to handle being alone better than NTs, but that doesn't mean we don't like social contact, particularly of sorts that we are comfortable with.

In a message dated 12/27/2007 12:50:10 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, no_reply writes:

"Some parts of the brain, like the frontal lobe and the amygdala, may develop too fast in early childhood, possible because cells become overwrapped in an insulating layer that may facilitate growth, says neuroscientist Amaral of the M.I.N.D. Institute at the University of California at . Exactly how these changes cause symptoms- social impariemtns, repetitive behaviors, poor language skills- is uncertain, alhtough the frontal lobe is known to regulate behavior and the amygdala, anxiety. Researchers believe that autism has both genetic and environmental causes."

+++

's comment:

"I have noticed many studies linking the rise in Asthma and allergies and other things to children living in very hygienic surroundings. Simply put, the child's immune system has nothing to do so it attacks otherwise innocuous agents or even the body itself. Could it be that the mothers, who are also living in very hygienic conditions, could be seeing a variant? That is to say, their immune systems, having nothing else to do, see the fetus as something bad and attack it?"

Tom's comment:

I have an alternative theory which fits in nicely with the scientific facts.

1) The research into the autistic genome wipes out environment as a cause or trigger for autism. However, it IS factually correct that "Some parts of the brain, like the frontal lobe and the amygdala, may develop too fast in early childhood possibly because cells become overwrapped in an insulating layer that may facilitate growth."

So I am thinking that...

2) When an autistic child is born, since it has no social need other than to tell its parents when something is wrong, ONLY the parts of the brain that the brain believes will be useful in the future actually develop: I.e. intelligence and other related areas. In the meantime, a dependency on parents and status quo in the environment become more of a need for the child for a longer span of the child's life since that part of the brain remains undeveloped. The ability of an autistic child to overcome this problem is dependent upon the brain's ability to adapt as time goes on.

3) An impairment to the further development of the brain would be ever shifting social "norms" and a lack of sympathy of others to make allowances for the delayed development in autistics.

Put simply, if one regards the lack of social skills as a disability, the only reason it IS a disability is the refusal of those who do have socially developed brains to accommodate those without social skills. Ironically, due to the lack of social skills that autstics wind up having, the area of the brain that may develop well beyond the norm (the portions of the brain where the intellect lies) gets disregarded by the socially developed folk, and this may cause intellectual development to stop or slow down at some point also, which would explain why it is we have socially inept people on the spectrum who may also have intellectual impairments.

Tom

Administrator

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[Guest guest]

wrote: " I think that they are on the right track. If As and

autism are genetic in origin ... <snip> ... "

It HAS been proven ... conclusively ... with exhaustive research.

Raven

Co-Administrator