Connections and Frequencies: New Study on the Brain
Using magnetoencephalography (MEG) brain imaging technology to measure brain electrical activity, Tony Wilson, Ph.D., has found that connections between brain cells are “deficient” between single regions of the brain in autistic children. It has been previously believed that such connections different between the regio ns of the brain in autistic persons. As reported in the August 23rd Science Daily, 20 participants listened to a series of clicks that occurred every 25 milliseconds (ms) for a period of 500 ms. Half of the participants were autistic, and the other half were not. The test is called the 40 hertz (cycles per second) auditory steady-state response test and “measures electromagnetic wave cycles and indicates brain cell discharges at the 40 hertz frequency.” Prof. Wilson is the lead researcher of the study (which appears in Biological Psychiatry) and assistant professor of neurology at Wake Forest University School of Medicine.
“This test measures the brain’s capacity to mimic what it’s hearing. A healthy brain’s cells will fire back at 40 hertz,” said Wilson. “We chose this test because it is a robust metric of how well individual circuits are functioning.”
A group of 10 children and adolescents with autism, and 10 without autism, listened to a series of clicks occurring every 25 milliseconds (ms) for a duration of 500 ms. The MEG measured the brain’s responses to these clicks.
In the right hemisphere of the brain, which controls attention and spatial processing, there was no significant difference in the groups. But the results showed a considerable discrepancy between the two groups in the left hemisphere, the area of the brain that controls language and logic.
In the auditory area of the left hemisphere, the group without autism delivered a brain response to the 40 hertz stimulation 200 ms after it began. However, the group with autism failed to respond entirely at the same 40 hertz frequency.
Science Daily entitles this article Research May Unlock Mystery Of Autism’s Origin In The Brain. Considering that the researchers were testing only 20 participants, only half of whom have autism, more testing seems in order.
What stood out to me in this study was the findings about the different connectivity of the brain in the ten autistic children. My son Charlie has to really think (and so to pause) before pulling together a series of motions (to catch a ball, to write a letter of the alphabet) or two words to refer to one thing (”red shirt,” “big ball”). Once he learns a sequence of motions, and his mind becomes familiar with those multiple motions (as those of riding a bike), he often becomes quite proficient and, simply, good. So perhaps the brain can indeed learn, through careful practice, to make those connections between the regions. Prof. Wilson noted that
“‘Both anecdotal and behavioral evidence suggest children with autism have significantly disturbed brain circuits on the local-level within an individual brain area…..For example, they tend to restrict their visual gaze to a part of someone’s face, like a nose or an eye, but not the person’s whole face.”
Prof. Wilson explains the difference between local and long-range connectivity using vision as an example. “With vision, one part of your brain identifies color, another perceives motion. Within each of these areas of your brain, there is local connectivity between brain cells that allow the region to do its job. When you see a red ball flying across the room, both of these areas of your brain start communicating with each other and put together flying and red as qualities of the same ball. That’s long-range connectivity.”
Further, Charlie seems very attentive to different sonic frequencies, of the human voice, machines (car engines), music (he has something of a preference for music with stringed instruments, such as the violin and cello). High-pitched voices (as I sometimes unconsciously speak with) seem to irk him, while low-pitched sounds (somewhat like his own humming) seem agreeable. And I note, too, that, when listening to music that he likes or swimming in the ocean (and on a stormy day with roiling, rough, low-roaring waves like today), Charlie has not issues or uncertainties about “connecting”: He sits focused listening to the music, he swims as if he is a wave in the ocean. The connections are resoundingly there.
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17 opinions for Connections and Frequencies: New Study on the Brain
Marcie
Aug 23, 2007 at 3:55 pm
Sound like their just re-proving the underconnectivy idea (I’d paste the links on the studies, but I don’t have access to them right now). Uta Frith basically theorized about this as the “lack of central coherence” in “Autism: Explaining the Engima”. So what I want to know, is the researcher onto something new or is he just “reinventing the wheel”.
Marcie
Aug 23, 2007 at 3:57 pm
“not just between regions, as was previously believed”
OK nevermind with the last question.
Kristina Chew, PhD
Aug 23, 2007 at 5:55 pm
Perhaps the novelty of this study is in the technology used?
laurentius-rex
Aug 23, 2007 at 6:39 pm
In the words of Victor Meldrew “I don’t believe it”
Why do you believe these crap scientists with there insignificant studies anymore than you believe the mercury morons? they all and I say they ALL come from the same stable.
A study of 10 out of six billion, can anyone take that seriosly?
Kristina Chew, PhD
Aug 23, 2007 at 7:03 pm
Emphasize the 10!
Marcie
Aug 23, 2007 at 7:10 pm
I’m just hoping that someday someone in one of the high up positions will say “Oh so that’s why autisitics think differently”.
I don’t disbelive the study because from everything else I know about autism, it makes some sense. I do get tired of researchers saying “We found the key to the *mystery* of autism!”. But I also have some extremely futile dream of these studies actually being used to improve people lives, not just medicate them.
Joseph
Aug 23, 2007 at 8:19 pm
The interesting question to me is ‘which is right?’ Are the mirror neuron researchers right? Are these ones right? Is Casanova right about his minicolumns?
Maybe none and all are right. Such is the nature of the construct.
Kristina Chew, PhD
Aug 23, 2007 at 8:27 pm
I’m still puzzling over the title given the study in Science Daily’s article—–saying that this study “unlocks the mystery of autism’s origin in the brain” seems something of an overstatement.
Marla Comm
Aug 23, 2007 at 9:14 pm
I’ve been following all the recent connectivity research and feel that inadequate connectivity between brain regions may explain some of my limitations. When I face something I dread, am upset about something or worries about something that may disrupt my routines, I am unable to use what I know rationally to reassure myself and calm my emotions. When I experience such a disruption, especially one whose resolution is unpredictable like a power outage, I get severe meltdowns. I know at the cognitive level that power will be restored and that I will eventually get my routines back on track, but can’t get that to register at the emotional level and remain locked in a meltdown until things finally get back to normal. I also lack the ability to achieve conscious relaxation despite repeated efforts to learn techniques like meditation and am unable to let go unless I fall asleep. Even tranquilizers do no good unless I fall asleep. If i try to remain awake, the fears and dread break through the fog.
I have above average math ability, but am unable to do any really advanced work because I lack the higher orger cognitive skills needed to analyze information, pick out important points, find the best solution to a problem or come up with new ideas. I suspect that connectivity is needed to execute these skills. I left graduate level studies because I couldn’t hack them despite my high marks in the undergrad courses, which didn’t require the higher order skills I lack.
Marla Comm
joycemocha
Aug 23, 2007 at 11:14 pm
One comment I’ve found most useful is that by some people with autism that autism is in part a developmental process that progresses in a different manner from the norm.
Brain wiring certainly can play a part in this. After all, in specific learning disabilities, some research is showing that brain wiring can play a part in reading disabilities (Sally Shaywitz)
Harold L Doherty
Aug 24, 2007 at 7:03 am
Is there something inherently offensive about scientific research into the nature of autism?
laurentius-rex
Aug 24, 2007 at 7:26 am
What is offensive to me is the huge number of small scale studies that are mutually contradictory and confusing all of which make no contribution to the real questions because they do not relate to each other, the scientists (if they can be called that, hack academics would be a better term) exist in reserch silos, don’t read each others work or review it because the name of the game is for each academic institution to get as many citations in journals strictly for the purpose of boosting the institutions prestige in the ratings game, and I can probably find a citation for that if needs be, but must rush now.
Marcie
Aug 24, 2007 at 9:07 am
Marla, your math skills sound like me with physics. I can follow the logic of physics and managed to get a degree in it, but I didn’t go to grad school in it b/c to do it well requires being able to pull this piece and that piece together, not just understanding the process of how someone else did it. (I ended up getting a master’s in anthropology, which was a lot of fun, and now work for civil service in my state’s environmental department.)
George Wade
Aug 26, 2007 at 1:41 am
Kristina,
In about 1950 I started to like fishing, then swimming, kayaking in the tiny river at home. By 1956 I was out in the sea it ran into and in 1960 sailed to Spain. I had mercury toxicity of a kind that seems to be understood as Asperger’s. It got me out of England, under sail, 5 years later, and into Canada: where I was able to understand and begin treating the mercury intoxication in 1995.
That would never have happened in the UK as it is so steeped in careful critical logic that one never gets to see the wood for the cell structure of the twigs and leaves around us in that carefully controlled society.
The ocean will do something great for Charlie too: for sure. It does bring the various parts of the brain into synchronisation with each other, apparently. It even helps bring my savage colitis under control.
I’ve found some double vision, helpful research, into the topic and will get it organised before posting. I’ve watched an EEG of part of the brain doing a foxtrot, while another part keeps time for a dozen steps; then breaks away into a tango for a bit. THAT may have some relationship to autism and the cure may be part of the cure for autism, too.
My own perspective has been: “To hell with criteria letting me be sure it’s proven by all the usual golden rules.” I have just taken useful pointers and used them; with some standard caution in not killing or maiming myself en route.
This will amuse a couple of you, I expect, and horrify a couple more, I hope! The only way out of this madness is to learn to THINK in the way the whole of the rest of the world does; combined with 10% of critical stuff to keep us safe, legal and practical. We don’t have the luxury of 25 billion years left to study it all critically.
A very good discussion, here.
Marla Comm
Aug 27, 2007 at 11:06 am
Marcie, glad to hear you had the anthroplogy to fall back on and turned it into a career. Although I couldn’t go all the way with it, math was still my strongest subject. I am completely lacking in other areas.
I struggled with all the humanities type subjects like history, geography, French and English literature. As an autistic with weak theory of mind, I couldn’t analyze the stories we were assigned in high school literature. I can’t even follow a fictional TV show or movie that emphasizes relationships.
I had trouble with French because of an overall weakness in foreign languages. History was difficult because I don’t have the best memory and couldn’t compensate by reasoning because the logic totally eluded me. In fact, I couldn’t even see any logic in the events we studied. Geography was just as difficult because the courses focused on topics much like ones we covered in history, ie politics and economy. To this day I have trouble making sense of anything that has to do with politics, law, business, economics and management.
I am even worse at arts like music and drawing. I can pick out a few simple melodies by ear, but not more complex ones. I tried piano lessons, but couldn’t master sight reading. I can identify single notes, but only after going through the mnemonic I learned years ago and couldn’t unlearn. I couldn’t master the more complex processing needed to play even the simplest pieces. Poor coordination also made it impossible for me to play without looking at they keys. I am even worse at singing and can’t even carry a tune with my voice.
I am a bit scientifically inclined and did better in science courses, but only in some topics. The same was true of computer electives I took in university. I understood the logic and was able to write programs that worked, but did poorly in assignments because I couldn’t come up with the best of many possible solutions or find the most efficient one.
Whatever academic ability I have is uneven with strengths in some topics and weaknesses in others. While I grasped some topics, I had trouble with others. In sciences I did poorly in labs because of hand coordination problems and inability to come up with my own conclusions. I also had trouble with word problems and topics requiring 3 dimensional visualization. I am also a purely linear thinker and have trouble understanding anything that follows more complicated branched logic like the graduate level math material I tried to master without success.
Despite spotty performance and weaknesses in many subjects, I ended up with impressive grades, thanks to lax curricula. In elementary school only our best work counted for final marks. All I needed was one high test score and one well done assignment. In high school I guessed my way through weak subjects because all finals were multiple choice. I flunked most of my classwork, but one wouldn’t know it from my report card because only the finals counted if we did better on them than finals and classwork combined. Even in university I lucked out with exam questions that were identical to ones covered in class and difficult questions I couldn’t answer being eliminated because most other students didn’t get them either. On some exams we were given several questions and asked to choose any 5 or 6. I naturally picked the questions I knew best and avoided ones on weak topics.
Thanks to the high marks I earned because of the lax grading system, people overestimate my abilities and think I’m brilliant. I may be a bit above average in a few narrow areas, but don’t feel smart. I don’t even have any of the traits common in highly intelligent people. Unlike them, I have no natural thirst for knowledge or desire for challenges. I crave simplicity and function best with routine clerical level tasks that require no decision making or other higher order skills. Ambition was never one of my strong suits. Even in childhood I never had any desire to explore my world or get involved with activities. I spent those years eating, daydreaming and bluffing my way through school.
Sorry for sounding so negative, but it’s the reality.
-Marla
George Wade
Aug 27, 2007 at 1:11 pm
Marla,
If some of this post is not what makes sense to you: try looking it over with a friend. I could not study when I was young, either; but learned to by speed reading and Mind Mapping.
At http://www.childrenscornerschool.com/recoveries.htm you can find, “AD(H)D QEEG brain changes with MB12 - 10 mins -
This groundbreaking video demonstrates how MB12 improved brain synchronicity of a 23 year old diagnosed with ADD and suffering from bowel problems. Using QEEG technology, watch his brain patterns improve in just minutes after administration of MB12.
This video has helped inspire UCLA to do a formal study of this vitamin for people with ADHD. (Italian subtitled version) (.pdf Report Summary)”
It is a couple of pages down from the top.
I know that it will upset many of the people on this blog, so I promise not to stay more than this one week. It will intrigue some of you, because it works for 50 - 65% of those who try. The critical logic that has been applied is to minimise the harm done by pathogen die off that release a lot of toxins as they die. This is a problem for some of the people trying this treatment.
Doing nothing, of course, is a greater problem: like having a car with superb brakes but no engine or steering wheel; and all the seats facing backwards for safety in case of a crash.
Hope you enjoy The Childrens’ Corner School site.
Marcie
Aug 30, 2007 at 5:38 pm
Marla,
I should have been a little clearer. I actually got my job based off the physics degree, even though my day to day work deals mostly with figuring out how environmental regulations apply to various companies. It’s nothing to do with physics per se, and I think my anthropology education has been as just as much of a help, though I would never had gotten the position based off of an anth degree only.
I think I’m much better suited to routine work too, but it’s because I have a “natural thirst for knowledge”. I like having enough mental energy left over at the end of the day to focus on something else (i.e. pull brain cells together for something other than work :-). But, of course, having a job sufficient to pay the bills comes first.
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