A not-so-shocking discovery
Geneticists uncover shocking autism finding
proclaims the headline of an article in the December 9th POE news (”All of the news you want, with none of the news you need”). The “shocking” finding is that “a number of studies have shown parents and siblings of autistic children sometimes share some of the anatomical and behavioral anomalies characteristic of autism, even though they themselves do not have the disorder”—which I posted on in Brains and breast milk: Research on autistic children’s relatives.
Why should it be “shocking” that autistic children’s relatives have similar “anomalies” in their brain structure?
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POSTED IN: Genetics, Neuroscience, Science
7 opinions for A not-so-shocking discovery
weary-worn
Dec 10, 2006 at 3:41 am
“Why should it be “shocking”…?”
Because it just shot their pre-natal test to smithereens?
Kassiane
Dec 10, 2006 at 4:28 am
It sure knocks a lot of environmental stuff out too, really…
sure makes the whole “lets abort autism before it happens!” a lot sketchier.
Kristina Chew, PhD
Dec 10, 2006 at 12:24 pm
Perhaps the next “shocking” headline would be that autism develops in utero…
abfh
Dec 10, 2006 at 9:15 pm
it just shot their pre-natal test to smithereens
No, actually, it didn’t… because as long as the parents aren’t aware that they have the same autism genes as their unborn children, they’ll obediently flock to the abortion clinics after being told that a tragic defect has been found.
That’s the way propaganda works…
Someone
Dec 10, 2006 at 11:29 pm
Well we still don’t really know what these similarities are between the autistics and their relatives, or even if it really is genetically linked; the studies could have a number of flaws. Not only that, but I’ve known a few people with high functioning autism who have gotten brain scans and nothing abnormal was found. We can’t just stop at this, you know; this whole thing requires further speculation.
serge's dad
Dec 11, 2006 at 3:44 pm
Eh, anyone who knows a few autism-affected families knows this. Parents are like their children. So, as they say, what?
Kristina Chew, PhD
Dec 11, 2006 at 8:31 pm
Sometimes it does seem that research does not exactly tell us something “new.”
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