Hopefully this research will lead to methods of treatment, but at the very least it helps us better understand autism.
Using a new form of brain imaging known as diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), researchers in the Center for Cognitive Brain Imaging at Carnegie Mellon University have discovered that the so-called white matter in the brains of people with autism has lower structural integrity than in the brains of normal individuals. This provides further evidence that the anatomical differences characterizing the brains of people with autism are related to the way those brains process information.
The results of this latest study were published in the journal NeuroReport. The scientists used DTI — which tracks the movement of water through brain tissue — to measure the structural integrity of the white matter that acts as cables to wire the parts of the brain together.
If it’s an issue of connectivity, maybe we can augment it artificially?
The imaging is wild! Tracking water thru brain tissue!! Whoa!! Way over my head, that’s for sure!
Impressive.
yes.. let’s put a stop to evolution..
Autism is evolution? That’s what we’re evolving into? Where did you come up with that gem ChrisMac?
I’m sure one day Science will determine that a lot of the notable disease of the 20th Century was due to the crap in the air, food, and water from industry. It’s amazing that some much lead is still in the soil surrounding roadways due to the use of tetra-ethyl lead in gasoline.
7,
I just found this:
Can too much television lead to autism?
Very interesting developments! Thanks for the updates. Perhaps this will lead to more quantitative diagnosis of mental health disorders, vs the symptomatic approaches used today.
Appearently DTI also shows “abnormal” connectivity for those with ADHD and schizophrenia. as well.
Small steps are still forward steps.
Related to comments of 3,6:
I love that someone like poster #3 have noticed this fact… Evolution is work in progress. Likely trigger of increased autism is mercury in food/air and vaccinations, but evolution does not care for the cause of the mutation, it just takes advantage of it… Typically autistic people do not cooperate with us well, but they live in their own world and typically posses genius-like capabilities we lack. In that sense their brains have advantages over ours (can you draw and see in your head everything you have seen to the minute detail or you need a technical “crutch” of camera to help your disability?). I see particular coincidence with increased autism and the direction where the modern technical society is taking us. I see autistic people perfectly suited for the possible world of living isolated lives connected to the virtual world and making most of it because their powers are perfectly suited for processing such info and not for our present social life. There is a possible world (and autistic people would consider it better one) where we are the disabled ones and in need of such obsolete stuff as socializing and personal contact. We might not like to call this process the evolution, but the Neandertal likely didn’t consider our appearance as a good thing…
Thank you
I agree with 13. I work with autistic students and I have to say I learn from them. They unfortunately sometimes do not learn from me. They are in their own little worlds but that is the interesting thing about them. I have learned more from my job then through my 17 years of schooling. That says a lot about the autistic community.
those are the mal-adaptive autistics, but the high functioning aspies like myself are the next major stage in evolution. Bear in mind, that almost all of history’s greatest minds were aspies, albert einstein, leonado da vinci, isaac newton, Thomas Edison, George Washington Carver, Benjamin Franklin, Bill Gates, we also have very analytical brains for proccessing and organising information, plus we’re more likely to evolve beyond sub-conscious animal tendencies of tribal dominance, selfishness, greed, and hatred, and societal ladders, and are morel likely to see things from other points of view… We are generally anti-conventionalism, because gaining one’s entire persepctive from only hearing one point of view can be short sited, and this is the very thing which proves it moreso in my mind is that autistic brains are actually bigger than a nuero typical brain. You also hafta consider, when nuero typical man first came up from neanderthal society, they likely didn’t wanna accept the new line either. But why not embrace it, we’re the future, I mean we could have a world without so much hunger (using cloning technology to create livestock and vegetation for the hungry nations), we could evolve past war, past bias, past all this. Because we have the tools to mentally evolve ourselves. I mean, evolution is aimed at adopting the species to it’s atomosphere, we’ve already gotten the perfect physical shape, this is when nuero typical (nt) man came along (your people, non-autistic). Now we’re evolving mentally. Here is a link:
http://www.autismtheory.org/
I mean, not trying to sound like a pissy pants here but NT society needs to treat us with alittle more respect instead of insisting we’re a disease and tossing us aside the way they do, that can be really hurtful (but I’ve gotten used to it). All we want really is to integrate into society as equals. Pre natal testing will only stop evolution from occuring.
But here check out
I mean, one would use the arugement that autistics aren’t given the tools to adopt to NT society but really many of us have obviously did pretty well, otherwise none of us would be on the internet. When NT man came along, he wasn’t given the navigational tools for the world that the previous stage of man created before him, but he worked around it and adopted. That’s what my people, the aspies, are doing now.
While i can’t read body language or social cues (which evolution has phased out anyways due to their complexity) I can sometimes know NTs better than they know themselves. Just because of my knowledge of eugenics and sociology. Most of NT society, especially in groups, seem to be sub-consciously dominated by their inner animals.
Number 6, I actually kinda found your comment offensive. I’d prefer not to be referred to as “that”.