Global News

November 23, 2012

What in the World Is Going On, November 2012 Edition


Written by Maureen Bennie  |  Autism Awareness Centre

Temple Grandin, the most famous person in the world with autism, recently had a brain scan done. She has exceptional nonverbal intelligence and spatial memory. Temple’s brain had a host of structural and functional differences compared with the brains of the control group in this comparison study.

Temple was 63 at the time of the brain scan. Her brain volume was found to be significantly larger than that of three neurotypical controls matched on age, sex and handedness. Some children with autism have abnormally large brains, though researchers are still working out how head and brain size changes across development. It was interesting to find that many of Temple’s strengths like memory and visual perception correlate with her brain differences.

Holiday travel season is about to begin and for many parents that equals great stress, especially when it comes to flying. Over the past two years, Washington Dulles International Airport, along with airports in Atlanta; Boston; Bridgeport, Conn.; Manchester, N.H.; Philadelphia; and Newark, have offered hundreds of parents and autistic children “mock boarding” experiences, allowing them to practice buying tickets, walk though security lines and strap themselves into a plane that never leaves the gate. READ MORE >>

No comments:

Post a Comment