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Dogs warm to children with autism reports the February 17th Chicago Tribune in an article about therapy dogs for autistic children—this is not the case for my own son, who on seeing a dog freezes, or backs up, or asks to be carry (something about the barks, especially when it is high-pitched, and their […]
13-year-old Samantha Ruderham has recorded her own pop album of 10 sounds, I Have a Voice, the January 3rd Edinburgh News reports. Samantha is autistic; her parents were told that she might never learn to speak. Her mother notes that “her daughter had actually learned to sing before she could speak in complete sentences.” Some […]
Researchers reverse effects of sleep deprivation notes today’s Science Daily:
Orexin-A, also known as hypocretin-1, is a naturally occurring peptide produced in the brain that regulates sleep. It’s secreted by a small number of neurons but affects many brain regions during the day and people who have normal amounts of orexin-A are able to maintain wakefulness. […]
12-year-old Thomas Onions publishes a daily cartoon about “Junior, a mixture of a cat and a fox, and Juliet, a mouse with attitude” on the web. Go here to see his cartoon: Today’s Worcester News notes that Thomas has Aspergers Syndrome and also skeletal dysplasia, which means he grows slowly. He is educated at home […]
Recalling the discussion about big heads a few days ago, I was drawn to theory that cooking is the secret to humans having big brains. Richard W. Wrangham, the Ruth B. Moore Professor of Biological Anthropology at Harvard University’s Peabody Museum, responds to a Q & A in the December 19th Scientific American:
I tend to […]
Scientists at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center have developed the first-ever genetic animal model of autism by introducing a genetic mutation in mice. Under Thomas Südhof, M.D., professor and chairman of neuroscience at UT Southwestern, the researchers replaced a normal mouse neurologin-3 gene with a mutated neuroligin-3 gene associated with autism in […]
The FoxP2 gene is the so-called “language gene,” as it plays a role in the neural development that is related to vocalization. Greg Laden reviews a study from PLoS Biology, with the title of Incomplete and Inaccurate Vocal Imitation after Knockdown of FoxP2 in Songbird Basal Ganglia Nucleus Area X. The study looks at “FOXP2 […]
The Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS) has called for a ban on dolphin assisted therapy (DAT), which some claim has helped autistic children “increase speech and motor skills.” The WDCS is calling for a total ban on DAT:
DAT is a controversial therapy that involves close interaction with dolphins, usually through swimming with these animals […]
I know there is an analogy to something about life with autism or discussions/debates/disputes about autism in this, the Life of Bugs. Maybe something about how we tend to go in the direction of where the most nourishment, the most immediate help seems to be………
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From the November 4th Mind Hacks is a link to a You Tube video entitled This is Charley—-it’s not my Charlie (he definitely is “Charlie with an i-e”), and the Charley in the video is, in fact, a cat. Charley is disabled: He has cerebellar hypoplasia, which is
….a disorder in the development of the cerebellum […]
Autism mother gets on her soapbox.
Written by Kristina Chew, PhD [email] for b5media.
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