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This is an interesting article that a friend posted on another forum I visit. I'd like your input or thoughts on it.

Neuroskeptic: Autistic Brains 'Genes Differ'

I read recently that Wakefield's study linking MMR vaccines to autism, which got him discredited, have been vindicated. The source isn't considered credible but the source has a source. Will have to look for links. Also, an Italian court just ruled that a baby's autism was caused by the vaccine. As wikipedia's talk page says, courts don't determine facts.

The rise in autism seems to be drastic enough that I'm surprised the government hasn't invested more resources to researching it.

I'm glad you posted this and I found It very Interesting....

My young nephew Is the only member of our large family that had been diagnosed with a form of autism... As a child, he was what I would call a low reactor... whilst his brothers and sisters would squeal with delight over Christmas gifts, he would barely raise a smile as one example...

It's no secret here what my nephew did when he was 16 years old and of course the family were shocked and are still asking why?

It's not an excuse but It may answer some questions,

oscar;1403378 wrote: I'm glad you posted this and I found It very Interesting....

My young nephew Is the only member of our large family that had been diagnosed with a form of autism...Everyone in your family has been tested?

Ahso!;1403384 wrote: Everyone in your family has been tested? No... has yours ?

I watched my nephew grow up as I have with all the other family children...

I am by no means an expert but we all knew he didn't respond as the other children did.

There's no one gene for autism, but all of the genes for autism might be related, or rather, they might form a team that works together. If you want to look at it this way, you could say that autism is a bit like blindness. People can go blind for lots of different reasons: it could be damage to the surface of the eye, or the retina, or the optic nerve which carries information to the brain, or the brain itself. All of these parts depend on all the others to work, and if one of them goes wrong, the whole system suffers.




The above is the really interesting bit to me. I suspect that quite a lot of psychological disorders are the result of a similar process - you could say exactly the same thing about schizophrenia.

It means that the idea of mental issues as an illness is now plain misleading, because eg malaria is caused by one particular bug carried by one particular species of mosquito, whereas mental conditions are the other way round - these several causes can all produce this identical effect.

Fifteen or twenty years ago the techniques and technologies to do this sort of work just didn't exist!

...just wanted to add that I think the causes of psychological conditions can be both physical and psychological. So if you need four things to be damaged in particular areas to cause a condition, the damage can be caused by either physical or mental trauma. So, for example, someone who was a bit nervy due to genetic makeup might be tripped into schizophrenia by recreational drugs.

Here's another interesting article on the subject of Autism and the immune system.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/26/opini ... utism.html

So here’s the short of it: At least a subset of autism — perhaps one-third, and very likely more — looks like a type of inflammatory disease. And it begins in the womb.

Thank you.

So perhaps around one third of autism is caused by immune system misfunction? The jigsaw is nowhere near complete, but the picture is becoming clearer and we've a rough idea where some of the pieces might go...

By gum things are moving fast in psychology these days!

Clodhopper;1403818 wrote: Thank you.

So perhaps around one third of autism is caused by immune system misfunction? The jigsaw is nowhere near complete, but the picture is becoming clearer and we've a rough idea where some of the pieces might go...

By gum things are moving fast in psychology these days!The problem I have with all this is, Jesus notwithstanding, we lack a prototypical person to base this use of "disease" and "disorder" on.

I have family members who have worked extensively with severely autistic people and what they and others agree upon is that autism leaves them with the impression that the brain of these folks appear to cause primate-like behaviors. When it comes to the brain, theres is as much that we can't understand to go along with what we do [understand]. IOW, some people are born with brains that more closely resemble that of a chimp in how it manifests itself. And my take on that is: so what, that's merely species variation, in my non-scientific opinion.

I fear (and perhaps my fears in this area are misplaced) that when we begin to talk about unique differences regarding the brain and discussing how we might negate them, we are indeed getting closer to cloning. And the scariest part of that is we're not recognizing it because it's being shroud in words like "disease" and "disorder".

Ahso!;1403551 wrote: Here's another interesting article on the subject of Autism and the immune system.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/26/opini ... utism.html


Thanks for that link. Seems entirely plausible to me.

koan;1403867 wrote: Thanks for that link. Seems entirely plausible to me.Me too. I only wonder about the issue of intervention on every side.

I'd be concerned with medications used to regulate immune responses but they mentioned probiotics so there is a chance they'll bend to more natural correctives.

The chimp bit rings a bell, in relation to strong manifestation of the syndrome. And that's purely descriptive not pejorative. The other thing I would mention is that they seem very happy, on the whole.

Mind you, these days anyone who is a bit clumsy socially or very keen on a hobby is called Asperger's. It's even got to the point where one person I know is probably using it as an excuse for bad behaviour! Where normal ends and a syndrome starts is very hard to pinpoint - unless there's now an MRI scan or something that can, in some way. Even then, what is a character quirk and what is a nasty bad syndrome?

What often happens to people who work with Autistic individuals is that they come away identifying with many of the personality traits in the Autistic, and in many respects it becomes a humbling experience. It's funny too that most of those workers that I know of begin to have a renewed respect for themselves and honor those tendencies they associate with their patients[?].

I firmly believe that past practices of locking these folks in institutions was a form of denial and the knowledge provided to government officials through studies were used for the purposes of manipulating their "normal" country members. IOW, I think powerful people knew how closely related we all are and were mischievous in their use of that knowledge.