Chuckle Time...

Forget ASD... we can all relate to this, LOL

Autism Rises: More Children than Ever Have Autism, but Is the Increase Real?

By MAIA SZALAVITZ

Full story: Time Heartland
Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

“The critical finding is that when you look at those children that this study refers to as ‘bloomers’ — the children who seemed very low-functioning at the beginning and then did extremely well — they [tend not to] have any intellectual disabilities,” says Rahil Briggs, assistant professor of pediatrics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, who was not associated with the research. Low-functioning children without intellectual disabilities were twice as likely to “bloom” as those who had cognitive deficits.

Briggs adds that another “very key” factor is that the mothers of the kids who bloomed tended to be more educated and not minorities. This suggests that low-income immigrant or minority families may not be receiving the services and support for their children that educated, affluent parents are able to access more easily.

Hands-on research: Neuroscientists show how brain responds to sensual caress

ScienceDaily — A nuzzle of the neck, a stroke of the wrist, a brush of the knee -- these caresses often signal a loving touch, but can also feel highly aversive, depending on who is delivering the touch, and to whom. Interested in how the brain makes connections between touch and emotion, neuroscientists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have discovered that the association begins in the brain's primary somatosensory cortex, a region that, until now, was thought only to respond to basic touch, not to its emotional quality.

The new finding is described in this week's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences(PNAS).

The team measured brain activation while self-identified heterosexual male subjects lay in a functional MRI scanner and were each caressed on the leg under two different conditions. In the first condition, they saw a video of an attractive female bending down to caress them; in the

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Understanding how the autistic brain functions

Tuesday 22 May 2012

NEUROSCIENCE

How much do we know about autism? Many of us have come across it only in movies like ‘Rain Man’ or ‘My Name is Khan’. Bharathi Prabhu explains autism, and the anatomical differences in the brains of people with autism.

Imagine not being able to perceive your body unless you are constantly moving or get wet. Imagine too what it would be if you could only hear or see or smell at a time but not do all three or even any two simultaneously. Think what it would be like to be oversensitive to sensory input.

A hug would then send you into a tizzy, and we are not referring to a pleasant sensation here. A loud noise would hurt your ears badly and you would want to withdraw into a shell. This is how people with autism perceive sensations. And these accounts have come from people with autism who can talk about their condition. [ READ MORE ]

Deccan Herald | Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Charlie Rose Brain Series: Autism

Charlie Rose Brain Series: Autism with Eric Kandel of Columbia University, Gerald Fischbach of The Simons Foundation, Uta Frith of University College London, Matthew State of Yale University, and Alison Singer of the Autism Science Foundation.

CLICK HERE to view full episodes of the Charlie Rose Brain Series: Autism