60 Mins of Australia on Autism, Vax/ Brain's Art Switch/ Georgia Action Needed

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FEAT DAILY NEWSLETTER Sacramento, California http://www.feat.org

" Healing Autism: No Finer a Cause on the Planet "

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March 12, 2001 Search www.feat.org/search/news.asp

Also: * Unlocking The Brain's Potential

* Action Alert: Georgia Bill Needs Calls Now!

* Autism Advocate and Quarterback Doug Flutie Moves to San Diego

60 Mins of Australia on Autism and Vaccine Controversy

[From their website, which has a five minute video clip to watch.]

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/sixtyminutes/stories/2001_03_11/story_301.asp

It was hailed as a miracle vaccine and it has virtually eradicated

measles, mumps and rubella. It is the triple antigen called MMR.

Since its introduction 12 years ago, MMR has protected millions of

children from the ravages of those childhood diseases.

But now there is a worldwide controversy over a possible and tragic

side effect — whether it causes autism in kids.

What we do know is that every year the numbers being diagnosed as

autistic are increasing.

Now, one British researcher believes he has found a link to the MMR

vaccine.

Tara Brown investigates the claims, which have provoked uproar in the

world of medicine.

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Unlocking The Brain's Potential

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/health/newsid_1211000/1211299.stm

Scientists think they have identified the part of the brain, which if

switched off, can stimulate artistic genius, a BBC documentary shows.

The discovery was made after studying people with autism and dementia,

but an Australian scientist believes ordinary people may one day be able to

" tap in " and allow them at least a moment of genius.

And in recent tests, five volunteers found their abilities were

improved after the particular area of the brain was temporarily " switched

off " .

Fragments of Genius explores the amazing talents of people like

Wiltshire, an autistic man who has an incredible ability to draw

buildings in specific and accurate detail after seeing them just once

In the 1988 film Rain Man, Hoffman portrayed , an

autistic savant with brilliant math skills.

Both and Paravicini, an autistic man who is a superb

jazz pianist, are savants - people with profound intellectual disabilities

who have a " fragment of genius " - of whom there are thought to be no more

than 25 in the world.

Experts have been unable to explain why people have these talents.

But now two scientists have identified an area of the brain which they

think may hold the key.

Dr Bruce , a dementia specialist at the University of California

in San Francisco, found some of his patients were developing artistic

talents.

After scanning them, he found they had all had problems in the same

part of the brain - the left arterial temporal lobe.

He found the same part of the brain was damaged in an American savant,

Dane Bottino, an 11-year-old with artistic talents.

Allan Snyder, professor of science at the Australian National

University, University of Sydney and director of Centre for the Mind, has

also been looking at why savants have such amazing talents, when they are so

severely disabled in other ways.

He says that everyone may be able to tap into the area of the brain

that gives savants these abilities.

His theory is that because a specific part of the brain does not work

properly, abilities in another area may be unlocked.

Brain malfunction

And he says the savants have their gifts, because of this

" malfunction " of the brain, not in spite of it.

He said savants were able to access certain parts of the brain most

people could not.

" They are exceptional in that they can tap in and somehow we can't.

They have privileged access. "

And he said if ordinary people could also find a way to get access:

" Each of us could draw like a professional, do lightning fast arithmetic. "

This malfunctioning may, he believes, enable them to access certain

" primitive " parts of the brain which process sound, vision and numbers.

In the BBC programme, Wiltshire is taken up in a helicopter

over London. Hours later, he produces a detailed and accurate drawing of a

four-square mile area of the city.

The scientists believe this is possible because instead of his brain

processing details of information, such as identifying a building or

recognising it, he can tune in to all the complex mental processes that lie

behind that recognition, and copy them.

A team from Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia, recently used

the findings of and Snyder to run their own tests which found " savant

skills " - memory, maths and art - improved in five out of 17 volunteers,

supporting Professor Snyder's theory.

The scientists used transcranial magnetic stimulation, a technique

used in the treatment of depression.

It was used to switch off the frontal temporal lobe. The volunteers

were tested before, during and after the treatment.

The five showed improvements in calendar calculating - naming what day

of the week any date in recent history was on - and drawing abilities.

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* * *

Action Alert: Georgia Bill for Autism Insurance Coverage Needs Calls Now!

[From Georgia autism advocate Donna Galler.]

Now we really need all Georgia parents to make calls...and quickly!

We only have about 4 business days to get this bill all the way

through the Senate. Don’t wait to respond to this because if you do, it

will be too late.

This bill would provide insurance benefits for our children to receive

treatment for their autism.

Our children need us and we are the ones who are supposed to take care

of them. They depend on us, so let not fail them by ignoring a chance to

give them a chance at a good life.

Here is what we need you to do right now. I mean the minute you read

This!

Call the senators on the list at the bottom of this page and tell them

the following info: (if you can...write them as well...just write one letter

and Send a copy to each one...call me for more info) but please call!

* Your name, that you are the parent of an autistic child, that child

name & age

* Ask for them to please support HB565 to give our kids access to

their insurance benefits

* Tell them what you have been through with your insurance and that

since your child has been diagnosed with autism, you can get them to pay his

or her claims.

* Tell them that our kids have a chance at a normal life with college,

career, and family WITH early intensive care while they are young and

without it they will have to live a life of constant supervision and

government support, which will cost a lot more than giving them proper

health care now. Tell them you need their help.

* Make sure and tell them that this bill was sponsored by Reps Mark

Burkhalter, Jimmy Lord (Chairman of the House Insurance Committee), and Ben

Harbin

The first person you need to call is the chairman of the insurance

committee, Senator Brown because he if chooses not to introduce the

bill, it will die right there. Please do this right away!

Senate Insurance Committee Members telephone & emails

Senators:

Brown, Chairman No mail. - VIP!

Tim Golden, Vice Chairman tgolden@... VIP!

Ed Harbison, Secretary No mail. VIP!

Don Balfour SS9BALFOUR@...

Cable swcable@...

Mike Crotts No mail.

Greg K. Hecht No mail.

Rene D. Kemp No mail.

Lamutt Rlamutt@...

Mitch Seabaugh Gasenate28@... (try 404 area code if 770

doesn’t work)

Bill s No mail.

Connie Stokes cstokes@...

Dean No mail.

W. No mail.

If you need any help or have any questions, please email me at

theclaw@... or call me at or . We really

need parents who are willing to come to the Capitol so that this will not be

just a nameless faceless issue. It is much harder to vote something down

when you have looked into the faces of those who need it and seen our

children's faces or photos. So far, only a handful of people have

come...and thank God for them...but we need more help because they might not

be able to come next time. Please do anything you can to come...and call me

to get that information. I don't want to be the only one there.

Please Don't Let This Bill Die When We Are So Close To Getting The Benefits

We Need!

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Autism Advocate and Quarterback Doug Flutie Moves to San Diego

From the Buffalo Bills in New York, Doug Flutie is hanging up his snow

shoes for beach sandles in the sub-tropical San Diego by joining the

Chargers. Flutie is active in autism advocacy through various events he

helps promote and through his Flutie Foundation.

His move puts him in the neighborhood of other noted Southern

California autism advocacy organizations: Cure Autism Now is in neighboring

Los Angeles and the Autism Research Institute is headquartered in San Diego.

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