This suggests children with autism have to recruit and rely on more conscious, effortful motor planning because they are not able to rely on the cerebellum to automate tasks.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Autism's Four C's: Cerebellum, Connectivity, Coordination, Communication
This suggests children with autism have to recruit and rely on more conscious, effortful motor planning because they are not able to rely on the cerebellum to automate tasks.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Water Balloon Season Is Back!
New Autism Studies Begin to Fill Out the Genetic Part of the Autism Equation
"the newly identified gene variants found to boost autism risk are involved in facilitating communication between brain cells -- making more credible the suggestions from other autism experts that autism or ASDs are due to abnormal connections between brain cells early in development."
Dr. Hakonarson also points out that having the genetic variant does not automatically mean that autism will result. Other genetic and environmental factors are also involved.
Dr. Thomas Insel of the NIH was interviewed by WebMD about the studies and also places the new genetic studies results in a genetic and environmental context:
It would be a mistake for people to read this and think this is only about genetics. Almost everybody agrees that autism is a collection of different disorders. Some of them may be heavily genetic. But I think most experts would say the bulk of autism is the result of both genetic and environmental effects that are interacting in some way that we have yet to fully describe.
This begins to fill out the genetic part of the equation."
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Salon's Elizabeth Svoboda Provides Balanced Picture of Autism and Neurodiversity
I have complained in the past that Neurodiversity gets a free ride from the mainstream media (especially Canada's publicly funded CBC) and is permitted to misrepresent the nature of autism. Few in the media even question the right of some persons with Aspergers or High Functioning Autism to speak on the behalf of all autistic persons including lower functioning persons with Autistic Disorder, like my son, with whom they have very, very little in common.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Autism Substantially More Likely With Breech Babies and Older Moms
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Conor Has Some Circle Place Fun
Walking Trail Flooded This Weekend
Autism: My Life by Autistic Artist Stephanie Lynn Keil
Autistic artisit Stephanie Lynn Keil has produced a YouTube video about her life and how she sees the world. Autism: My Life is at times sad but also hopeful and always beautiful.
I recommend that you take a few minutes out of your day to view, and enjoy, this personal and moving video. You can see Autism: My Life and Stephanie's other art and ideas at her blog site A Grand Illusion.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Autism Is A Complex Disorder, A Single Causal Mechanism Is Unlikely
They cling to this belief even though the fact that one identical twin has an Autism Spectrum Disorder diagnosis does not necessarily mean that the other twin will also have an ASD. For many with the "it's gotta be genetic" mindset no explanation, no study, no evidence will budge them.
For everyone else in the world though Dr. Harvey Singer of Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore who, with his colleagues, has studied the effects of mice that developed autistic like behaviors after being exposed before birth to antibodies from mothers of autistic children, has some wise words to share with us. Dr. Singer is quoted in a Reuters article Mother's antibodies may contribute to autism :
Once again, I must thank our American friends for offering informed, sensible information about the nature of autism disorders, their possible causes and interventions.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Vaccine-Autism War: Jim Carrey Speaks and the Neurodiversity Hounds Howl
The anger of Mr. Leitch, "Orac" and others who have closed their minds should not dissuade the IACC or anyone else with a genuine interest from trying to understand the ever rising autism epidemic that affects our children. Their very unscientific mindsets should not prevent the necessary research from being done.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Evidence Maternal Antibodies can Trigger Autism - What starts with V and can Trigger Maternal Antibodies?
As reported in the following excerpt from a EurekaAlert news release, recent mice studies add to previous research indicating that maternal antibodies can trigger autism. Can anyone think of a word starting with the letter V that can trigger antibodies .... and therefore autism?
New studies in pregnant mice using antibodies against fetal brains made by the mothers of autistic children show that immune cells can cross the placenta and trigger neurobehavioral changes similar to autism in the mouse pups.
A report on the research from investigators at the Johns Hopkins Children's Center published online in the Journal of Neuroimmunology expands on a 2008 report from the same team showing that mothers of autistic children tested positive for fetal brain antibodies. Antibodies are proteins the body naturally makes to attack foreign tissues, viruses or bacteria. Because a growing fetus is not "rejected" by the mother's immune system even though some of its DNA is "foreign" (from the father), scientists have long suspected that some combination of maternal and fetal biological protection is at work.
The new research from Hopkins, however, suggests that the protective system is not perfect and that antibodies are not only made but are re-circulated back to the fetus through the placenta, possibly triggering inflammation in the brain and leading to a cascade of neurological changes resulting in neurodevelopmental disorders, such as autism.
Autism Science Foundation - Doesn't Science Require An Open Mind?

I have some concerns about the ASF's approach to advocating for "autism science". The new Foundation has announced that it will focus on non-vaccine related causes of autism. From its inception it has ruled out the possibility that vaccines could cause or contribute to autism, even in potentially susceptible population subgroups. To this humble non-scientist such an approach smacks more of political goals than scientific research. The ASF makes a clearly political statement supportive of vaccine programs and concluding with finality that vaccines do not cause autism:
The Autism Science Foundation’s mission is premised on the following facts and principles:
"One question (is) whether there is a subgroup in the population that, on a genetic basis, is more susceptible to some vaccine characteristic or component than most of the population, and may develop an ASD in response to something about vaccination. We know that genetic variations exist that cause adverse reactions to specific foods, medications, or anesthetic agents. It is legitimate to ask whether a similar situation may exist for vaccines"
Given the existence of legitimate questions concerning possible vaccine autism questions it seems odd for an organization founded to provide quality scientific research to make such a dogmatic statement conclusively ruling out those very questions. It also seems odd that the founders of this organization believe that public confidence in the vaccine program will be maintained by shutting the door on areas of research in which substantial numbers of the population believe are legitimate areas of inquiry - including members of the public like Dr. Bernadine Healy, Dr. Julie Gerberding, Dr. Duane Alexander and Dr. Jon Poling.
Personally, this humble member of the public would have greater confidence in the safety of vaccine programs if more research of the type suggested by Doctors Healy, Gerberding and Alexander were conducted and the results were positive than by the incessant repetition of the dogma that the vaccine-autism link has been disproven. It has not. And many members of the public know that. It is time to do the research and move on.
Hopefully the "Autism Science Foundation" will stick to advocating FOR research of possible autism causes, and treatments, and not spend its time simply promoting the view, not shared by all, that there is no possible vaccine- autism connection.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
With Autism Rising in Indiana, 1 in 113, it is Time to Study Environmental Toxins and Autism
In a series the likes of which is unlikely to surface at the New York Times, the Globe & Mail or the CBC, 'On the Trail: Autism and the Environment', the Bloomington Alternative examines autism in relation to environmental toxins. In Indiana: High rates of autism, toxic pollution, the Stephen Higgs, continues his autism and environmental toxins series at BA with a report on Indiana's high rates of autism and toxic pollution noting that Indiana's identified autism diagnoses rate changed from 1 in 128 to 1 in 113 in one year.
The Denialists will point, yet again, to the change of diagnostic criteria back in 1993-4 as an explanation for this latest increase in diagnoses in Indiana. They will offer no actual study to back up the claim, a claim that grows weaker each time it is trotted out to explain a new increase in autism rates, and as we move further away in time from 1994. Seriously, 15 years after the change in DSM autism definitions it is no longer credible to point to the 1994 DSM change as a full explanation for the startling increases in diagnoses.
It is time to look at ALL possible environmental causes of autism from vaccines to industrial plants and toxic toys and jewelry. It is not enough to scoff and pretend to be "scientific" while denying, refusing to look at possible causes of autism as suggested by facts and evidence.
A Perfect Day
