{"id":547,"date":"2012-06-28T17:56:07","date_gmt":"2012-06-28T21:56:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mfw.us\/blog\/?p=547"},"modified":"2012-06-28T17:56:07","modified_gmt":"2012-06-28T21:56:07","slug":"recent-autism-research-a-synopsis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mfw.us\/blog\/2012\/06\/28\/recent-autism-research-a-synopsis\/","title":{"rendered":"Recent Autism Research: A Synopsis"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in;\" align=\"CENTER\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: x-large;\"><strong>Current\u00a0Research<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in;\" align=\"CENTER\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\"><strong>Implications\u00a0for the Asperger Community<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal;\" align=\"CENTER\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\"><em>A\u00a0Conference Co-Sponsored by\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/span><em style=\"color: #000080;\">Asperger&#8217;s\u00a0<\/em><em style=\"color: #000080;\">Association of New England (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.aane.org\/\">AANE<\/a>),\u00a0<\/em><em style=\"color: #000080;\">Northeastern\u00a0<\/em><em style=\"color: #000080;\">University, and YouthCare<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in;\" align=\"CENTER\">\u00a0<span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; color: #000080;\">Held at Northeastern University<\/span><span style=\"font-style: normal;\">\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; color: #000080;\">on March 16, 2012<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in;\" align=\"CENTER\"><strong>One\u00a0<\/strong><strong>Person&#8217;s Observations and Reactions<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in;\" align=\"CENTER\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\"><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: none;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"font-style: normal;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: none;\">\u00a9<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: medium;\">2012\u00a0Michael Forbes Wilcox<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in;\" align=\"CENTER\">\u00a0This post is a lightly-edited version of an article that appeared in Issue 10 of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aane.org\/asperger_resources\/aane_journal.html\">AANE Journal<\/a>: Spring 2012<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal;\" align=\"CENTER\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">NB:\u00a0the writer has no formal training in neurology, psychology, or\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size: small; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; color: #000080;\">any other -ologies that relate to autism.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-size: small; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; color: #000080;\">These\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-size: small; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; color: #000080;\">musings come from someone (with a background in economics, finance,\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-size: small; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; color: #000080;\">and investments)\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-size: small; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; color: #000080;\">who\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-size: small; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; color: #000080;\">self-diagnosed Asperger Syndrome in 2006, at 60 years of age.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in;\" align=\"JUSTIFY\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\"><strong>Surprising\u00a0Concordance<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal;\" align=\"JUSTIFY\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">I<\/span>\u00a0<span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">was struck by a couple of common themes that ran through all six of<\/span><span>\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">the research presentations given during the day. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in;\" align=\"JUSTIFY\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">Science<\/span>\u00a0<span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">has learned many things about autism in recent years, and these<\/span><span>\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">findings often run contrary to the received wisdom. Yet, several<\/span><span>\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">important research findings, such as the ones presented at this<\/span><span>\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">conference, have not made their way into common knowledge.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in;\" align=\"JUSTIFY\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">New<\/span><span>\u00a0<span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">scientific understanding of autism is growing by leaps and bounds,\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">which gives us great optimism that we will rapidly gain new\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">appreciation of just what it is that is different about this\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">wonderfully complex neurological state. Still, the more we learn,\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">the more we realize how much we do not understand.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in;\" align=\"JUSTIFY\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\"><strong>Major\u00a0Findings<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal;\" align=\"JUSTIFY\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">Here<\/span><span>\u00a0<span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">are a few points that I distilled out of the day&#8217;s proceedings. There\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">are many common misconceptions about autism; one might even call them\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">autism myths. The latest scientific research either finds no evidence\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">to support these beliefs or, in some cases, has proven them to be\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">quite contrary to the evidence. Here are some of the main lessons I\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">took away from the conference:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in;\" align=\"JUSTIFY\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">Autism<\/span><span>\u00a0<span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">is not a \u201cspectrum\u201d condition. There is a clear\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">dichotomy between being autistic and non-autistic (neurotypical). In\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">fact, autism itself is a word that describes a variety of\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">heterogeneous neurological differences. It might be more accurate to\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">say there are many different kinds of autism. Perhaps a better\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">metaphor might be the \u201cautism constellation.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in;\" align=\"JUSTIFY\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">There<\/span><span>\u00a0<span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">is no correspondence between autism and intelligence. The terms\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">\u201chigh-functioning\u201d and \u201clow-functioning\u201d\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">have been used to describe autistic people, based entirely or mostly\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">on IQ level. These terms are not at all helpful, since they do not\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">describe pragmatic functional ability. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in;\" align=\"JUSTIFY\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">Similarly,<\/span><span>\u00a0<span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">commonly used \u201cseverity\u201d labels are neither accurate nor\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">useful. There is neither a \u201cmild\u201d nor a \u201csevere\u201d\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">form of autism. These terms may simply describe the difficulty of\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">diagnosing or recognizing any given person as autistic.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in;\" align=\"JUSTIFY\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">Autistic<\/span><span>\u00a0<span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">people have a very different way of thinking about the world. That\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">different way is just that; a difference, not a deficiency. Autistic\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">brains simply may have a different \u201cdefault\u201d mode from\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">neurotypical brains. We may <\/span><em style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">prefer<\/em><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\"> to focus on details, for\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">example, but that does not mean we cannot see the big picture. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in;\" align=\"JUSTIFY\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\"><strong>Brief\u00a0Synopses of Presentations <\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal;\" align=\"JUSTIFY\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">There<\/span><span>\u00a0<span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">were six presenters; here is a brief look at their topics and a\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">couple of observations about each one. This is not intended to cover\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">the full gamut of each hour-long presentation.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in;\" align=\"JUSTIFY\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\"><strong>Pharmacotherapy<\/strong>:<\/span><span>\u00a0<span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">There are medications that can be effective in addressing some of<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\"> the negative qualities associated with autism, including anxiety,\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">irritability, and hyperactivity. There are no drugs, however, that\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">can treat the core symptoms of autism, which have to do with social\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">interaction and communication.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in;\" align=\"JUSTIFY\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\"><strong>Multimodal\u00a0Neuroimaging<\/strong>: Insights gained from combining different<\/span><span>\u00a0<span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">brain-imaging techniques tell neurologists that, from a neurological\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">point of view, autism overlaps with bipolar and schizophrenia. It is\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">also evident that what we call autism is quite heterogeneous. That\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">is to say, there are different types of autism, and it is not a\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">quality that one can have more or less of (autism does not exist\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">along a continuum, or a spectrum). Cognitive control is a key\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">subject under investigation, and one thing has become clear:\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">behaviors that appear the same to a casual observer may look very\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">different neurologically. This is worrisome since autism is\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">diagnosed primarily by observing behavior.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in;\" align=\"JUSTIFY\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\"><strong>Social\u00a0Engagement at School<\/strong>: On-site observations have called into<\/span><span>\u00a0<span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">question the value of the one-on-one aide model, at least as it is\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">currently implemented. Also, there seems to be no empirical support\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">for the notion that autistic children are, on average, more socially\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">isolated than neurotypical kids. One underutilized technique for\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">addressing socialization challenges is to engage children in\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">suggesting solutions, instead of having teaching being guided\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">entirely by adults. The artificial environment in which most social\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">thinking training is done may make it less relevant than it could\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">be. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in;\" align=\"JUSTIFY\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\"><strong>Different\u00a0Preferences for Attention<\/strong>: At least a couple of the stereotypes<\/span><span>\u00a0<span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">that have grown up around autism seem to have no scientific support.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">Studies designed to measure central coherence (seeing the big\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">picture) and \u201csticky attention\u201d (the relative inability\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">to shift focus) have revealed no essential difference between\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">autistic and neurotypical subjects. What is clear is that autistic\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">people have different preferences; and may prefer, for example, to\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">dwell on detail. That doesn&#8217;t mean they can&#8217;t see the big picture;\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">it&#8217;s just not as interesting.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in;\" align=\"JUSTIFY\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\"><strong>Adaptive\u00a0Behavior Deficits<\/strong>: It used to be thought that 70% to 80% of<\/span><span>\u00a0<span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">autistic people also suffered from intellectual impairment. Recent\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">studies show the number to be the other way around. (As an aside,\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">I&#8217;m not aware of any connection between autism and intelligence, so\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">I wonder why the percentage of people who are categorized as\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">intellectually impaired would be any different \u2013 5% \u2013\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">from the general population. One caveat here is that there could be\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">developmental delays associated with autism so that age-adjusted\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">testing could be skewed.) The concept of \u201chigh-functioning\u201d\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">as it relates to autism is \u00a0generally only related to IQ, and so is\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">not really addressing the ability to function in a pragmatic sense.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">A study of a large group of autistic people found no correlation\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">between scores on a scale of adaptive skills (the Vineland scale)\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">and a measure of \u201cseverity\u201d of autism (the ADOS test).\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">This calls into question the relevance of labels such as \u201cmild\u201d\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">and \u201csevere\u201d since they seem to have no practical\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">significance.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0in;\" align=\"JUSTIFY\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\"><strong>Physiological\u00a0Features of Anxiety<\/strong>: As with brain imaging, measurement of<\/span><span>\u00a0<span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">physiological signs of anxiety (such as higher heart rate and\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">perspiration) found that outward behavior is not necessarily an\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">accurate indication of what is going on inside. This suggests that\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">even careful observation by staff may not give an adequate (or even\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">accurate) warning of when a person is experiencing distress. Better\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;\">techniques are needed.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Current\u00a0Research Implications\u00a0for the Asperger Community A\u00a0Conference Co-Sponsored by\u00a0Asperger&#8217;s\u00a0Association of New England (AANE),\u00a0Northeastern\u00a0University, and YouthCare \u00a0Held at Northeastern University\u00a0on March 16, 2012 One\u00a0Person&#8217;s Observations and Reactions \u00a92012\u00a0Michael Forbes Wilcox \u00a0This post is a lightly-edited version of an article that appeared in Issue 10 of the AANE Journal: Spring 2012 NB:\u00a0the writer has no formal training in &hellip; <\/p>\n<p><a class=\"more-link btn\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mfw.us\/blog\/2012\/06\/28\/recent-autism-research-a-synopsis\/\">Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mfw.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mfw.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mfw.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mfw.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mfw.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=547"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.mfw.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":613,"href":"https:\/\/www.mfw.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547\/revisions\/613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mfw.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mfw.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mfw.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}