The Neurobiology of Autism - conference notes
These are some verbal notes from a recent meeting I attended. There are some pictures, but it's mostly an audio thing. One thing I forgot to note was that in the Mirror Neuron presentation, an experiment was discussed that focused on sarcasm and the ability of an ASD child to "get it". "A balloon, oh great." Said by 2 different people means two entirely different things depending upon the tone. One person is excited about the balloon and the other is expressing disappointment following the balloon having popped. The ASD kid doesn't pick up on the meaning unless s/he's told to pay attention to the tone prior to hearing the phrase. Only then does the ASD kid "get it" and the appropriate spots light up on the MRI.
Running time - a 22 minute beast that I failed to get under 10 minutes for youtube consumption.
For Quicktime version, click here(pops)
It's pretty rough, but Bonferroni and Venn have been taking up much of my non-sleeping time lately. Enjoy.
posted by Bartholomew Cubbins @ 6/04/2007 12:00:00 AM
61 comments
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61 Comments:
BC, you can get the video onto Youtube by compressing the quicktime file to say 15fps, high quality. After conversion, check the movie info to see the mb size. Keep trying diff compressions until you get it under 100mb then you can upload to Youtube. I recently did one that was 15 minutes. I haven't watched your newest yet but look forward to it tonight.
CS
Thanks CS, I'll give it a shot.
I watched the video, but I have a comment on the written post.
I am an ASD adult who was mainstreamed as a kid, and I have no problem understanding sarcasm (at least, as far as I can tell - I'm not an expert on this or anything). I remember being teased about not "getting it" on the playground quite a bit, and one day I asked one of the other kids about it - which of course, led to more teasing, but I did get an explanation which turned out to be helpful. Once I knew a little bit about it, I was able to figure it out - with constant exposure to sarcasm on the playground.
Of course, that's anecdotal and no two ASD kids are the same and who knows if that sort of "therapy" will help everyone and all that, but that's my experience. It would be interesting to see studies done on whether or not that sort of thing could be helpful to people across the spectrum, though.
thanks for sharing your insight, Danny. It's important to caveat all human experiments with the realization that autism is a spectrum and each individual is quite different from another. This can be averaged out in a huge study, but the individual peculiarities tend to confound the study more and more as the sample size decreases. That said, I don't know what her value of N was for her experiment and I don't know the particulars of the experimental design.
I believe input from an autistic would benefit any such experimental design.
The sacrcasm thing, yeah right.
:-)
It may be that autistic kids are slower in picking up on it, but most of the adults I've come across online (a small sub-group of the real population of autistics) all seem to understand what sarcasm is, they might need to ask clarification, "Was that sarcastic?" But then so do non-Autistics sometimes.
It's possible that some autistic adults can't get information from voice tone, but it doesn't seem likely.
There are some autistics online who are great (too great?) at sarcasm, and there's a guy who tells his story in "Aquamarine Blue 5," he understands how to use sarcasm perfectly and writes about it specifically as I remember.
You have to read what Dr. Blaylock says.
Oh my, the man definitely has some black helicopters trailing him. It must be exhausting to be constantly looking over one's shoulder.
Yes, Blaylock is quite a piece of work!
Russell Blaylock may have once upon a time been a real physician, but now he mostly writes scaremongering stories and sells supplements in a strip mall.
On his website he used to claim to be on the faculty of the medical school at Ole Miss (Univ. of Mississippi), but whenever anyone checked the school's website (it is actually www.olemiss.edu) his name was missing. Someone actually alerted the school of this man claiming to be on their faculty and they sent him a nice legal letter to stop.
He no longer claims to be on the faculty at Ole Miss (but other websites still claim so), he now does guest lectures at a private religious school (www.belhaven.edu). The head of the biology department there is an advocate of "creation science", http://www.belhaven.edu/Belhaven/faculty/AlChestnut.pdf .
By the way have you checked the quality of articles at http://www.newstarget.com/ ? I checked the "worthy websites" on the right hand side of the page and noticed that not only does it include the less than reputable "Generation Rescue", a couple ambulance chasing law firm websites, the ridiculous Bolen Report, but also the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (a $cientology anti psychiatry group).
(okay, I just noticed a couple of the Autism Hub blogger were spammed by this guy, so I am counter spamming!)
Hi-
My name is Sara and I work for Random House- sorry to leave you a note on your comments but you don’t have an email address that I could find. We have a book coming out called Look Me in the Eye (My life with Aspergers) by John Elder Robinson who is the brother of Austen Burroughs-the author of Running with Scissors and we would like to send you a copy. If you are interested please email me at SSmyth@RandomHouse.com.
Thanks,
Sara
Hi BC,
You seem to have an interest in autism and immunology. What about immunological aspects of autism. I don't mean vaccines or the response to vaccines, but fundamental immunological aspects of autism.
KGB
I'll tell you sommat about the voice tone, it's cultural innit?
I mean could you tell from watching a japanese movie without subtitles who was being sarcastic and when?
I mean US accents are different what is a sarcastic tone in one accent is normal in another, which is what really pisses me off at times, when my tone of speech is taken to mean something it does not, simply because people are tuned to there local interpretation.
Well lets see some real research into that which is free of cultural bias.
Now I am off to hunt some crocodiles :)
I have submitted an abstract of a paper to the IMFAR conference in London this year (cos I ain't gonna have to do no flying to get there)
I doubt much it will be accepted anymore than the abstract I submitted to ASA was (Well stuff you ASA cos I will be presenting on the same subject I proposed to you at the NAS this year yah boo sucks to you and all)
It is incredibly difficult to fit an off piste abstract into the format of IMFAR, and strictly following the rules mine ought to be rejected out of hand.
However the paper won't die, because I intend to haunt the fringes of Academe with it and it will surface somewhere else (when I have actually written it, and I am only 1750 words into it yet.)
However it will be as well referenced as you can get and I am currently on a self imposed crash course in cognitive neurology which would leave SBC standing I think.
I am nothing if I am not an info sponge when I set my mind to it.
My thesis is of course going to be the usual one, that you have seen me post a gazillion times about the lack of true independance in science, the inability of the scientific mind to escape the embodied and social prerogatives. Damn it sometimes to read researchers it is as if they would believe themselves immune to a knee jerk response on a standard reflex test. Well hey actually "I" am immune! It takes a fair few hammerings to get my knee to kick (that is being absolutely literal here, no metaphor I don't react easily, when I had an EMG test, the guy kept trying to tell me to relax but could I?
With this whole sarcy thing I can be literal and sarcy contemporaneosly in that I have an absolute deadpan method of delivery and no-one ever knows, and sometimes under the guise of being sarcy I am actually being literal. It's complex in the sense of folded space complex.
I'd have fun with lie detectors I am sure :)
But you see that is Rashomon syndrome for you. You see it as you do, and you don't as the next guy does, nobody does.
Bartholomew -
Greetings. My name is Kim Malek from Trusera (www.trusera.com), a free invitation-only network of people who care about health and believe in the power of shared experience. It's an exciting new venture with a simple starting point: To provide a safe and comfortable environment where people looking for credible, relevant health information can connect to the knowledge and experience of others who've "been there."
The Autism Spectrum community's real need and demonstrated track record for sharing knowledge and support has made it one of Trusera's first areas of focus.
I've been reading your blog and wanted to reach out to you because you seem to share our belief in the power of sharing and creating access to actionable information. We believe creating the world's largest network and suppository of Autism stories/information will be extremely beneficial to those looking for knowledge, support and guidance in taking the next step.
We are reaching out to a select group of people within the Autism Spectrum community—leaders and advocates—as part of an effort to build valuable, credible content on Trusera and connect existing networks of people in new, powerful ways online. If you're interested in participating, there are several options that I'd love to share with you.
Please let me know if I can send you an invitation to join our network and discuss other options to play a role in sparking this new resource for the Autism Spectrum community.
Sincerely –
-Kim Malek
kim@trusera.com
Just wondering what this has to do with the reality of autism? It is not a suitable subject for chat! It isn't something to get cute about!
Autism was first coined to describe a personality type, then many people like Eugene Bleuler and others borrowed it as a descriptive noun to describe various conditions, but now it's used as a collective label for; "this kid isn't developing as expected for a normal(?) child, but we can't find any clinical explanation...so we use the catch all label of 'autistic'"!
Isn't there anyone else out there who understands the need for precise definitions? Or to study the historic meaning of words like "autism", or the dictionary understanding of "normal"? Hint: it's not an ideal; just something mediocre.
I'm gwynfryn and you can contact me at gwynzkind@yahoo.co.uk
Hi BC, are you gone from this site? Is there a way to reach you?
BC,
I would like to reach you for a story on certain aspects of federally funded autism research.
Write me at:
ckjohnson@ap.org
Carla K. Johnson
Associated Press Writer
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Hi there BC. Thanks for taking these notes, I really wish I could go to conferences like this but I simply don't have the time or money. It broke my heart when I found out about this conference and realized I wouldn't be able to attend.
Anyway, two quick comments:
Firstly, I wanted to complement you on your blog. It makes me happy to read somebody who is clever enough to understand what's real/hoax and important/unimportant, but able to present themselves in an enjoyable and coherent way. Science needs more writers like you.
Secondly, on the subject of sarcasm, I wanted to submit a website that you and others who read this site might enjoy.
http://isnt.autistics.org/
Thank you for your submissions, and I hope you enjoy the site.
Nick
Hi. I just found your blog online and wanted you to invite you to join http://www.WeAreAutism.org - a new social support network designed and built for the autism community.
WeAreAutism.org is the place for people living with Autism and is the newest social support network from the WeAre.Us platform - the leading platform of medical social support networks.
WeAreAutism.org offers much of the same capability set as larger social networks like MySpace, Facebook, but within a walled garden in which users know they are sharing private details of their trials and tribulations with only those that can genuinely relate and understand, with tools geared towards support and health tracking, and with branding engendering a sense of trust and community.
We're the Myspace/Facebook of medical communities and serve as complement to generalist sites with our social support networks for Crohns, HD, Autism and other diseases being leading centers of dialogue and patient focus on the internet.
The sites offers users a powerful social networking platform, a large expansive resource base, a database of information, clinical trial data, health trackers and knowledge sharing tools among other features.
Some of our other sites like WeAreCrohns.org have changed people's lives.
Here is some direct feedback:
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We'd love to get your support and invite you to join the site. If you have any questions or comments feel free to contact me with your questions and comments.
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What would you know? and what woud any of them know and for heaven,s sake they ought to know better by now except that to tread on what customarily is safe ground an avoid criticism thereby
I was an autistic child, cute or troublesome according to whether you thoughy my picture pretty or my behavior appaling.
And I am 52 years old now, maybe not so old as Kanners Donald Wotsit who apart from cultural difference probably ain't to different from I barring my unfortunate panglossia of the ultrainvermetanoologiaverse.
- and who else would know what that means :) - Nah side tracks apart (an they do say that is an occupational hazard (dukes notwithstanding) of the condition.
Characterize it all by reference to children and then have cut off points in the teens or whatever and you are going to miss the reality of it all the fact that the condition is nothing but a set of socially observed and defined developmental trajectories.
OK too hard too take come back in ten years when I am completely ga ga and then decide how mainstream that idea is or not.
BTW be warned unless there is a significant deterioration in my cognitive abilities I will remember this challenge, some of us autistics have an unfortunate propensity to do that.
About the confusion about schizophrenia: The "mental" vs "medical" labels are at the core of public confusion about schizophrenia in general. The term "mental" is equated with "emotional" or psychological. This neurobiological brain disorder is neither "emotional" nor "psychological" in origin. In this respect, it is not "mental".
The confusion arises because severe emotional disturbances can occur in young, genetically predisposed children due to severe psychological stressors such as in cases of severe abuse or neglect.
The confusion may clear up when better diagnostic testing becomes available, such as blood tests, tests of Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), EEG, or MRIs. Protein Biomarkers for Schizophrenia Studied in Cerebrospinal Fluid is an interesting study of a potential test for schizophrenia with a sensitivity (the probability that a symptom is present given that the person has the disease - also known as the true positive rate) between 80-88 percent, and the specificity (the true negative rate) was 95%. That is NOT shabby!
Unfortunately, such diagnostic tests are not yet available in medical practice. For now, diagnosis is made by a psychiatrist based on symptoms after all other known medical causes have been ruled out. The problem with this, is that there are many possible known medical causes for symptoms matching those of schizophrenia, and usually, very few of these known medical causes are actually tested for.
Autism is a behaviorally defined, life-long static developmental disorder of the brain that is poised for neurobiological investigation.It affects at least 1 or 2 in 1000 persons and has a broad range of severity.The neurological basis of autism's many sensorimotor features, including stereotypies, is unknown.
---------------
Nickysam
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Neurobiology is the study of cells of the nervous system and the organization of these cells into functional circuits that process information and mediate behavior. It is a subdiscipline of both biology and neuroscience. Neurobiology differs from neuroscience, a much broader field that is concerned with any scientific study of the nervous system.
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hesslei...
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Ignored again? Why can't you guys take note of historical facts; e.g. this paper:
http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/citation/77/3/417
which describes nearly everything anyone needs to know about autism, and which was written over 80 years ago (and decades before Leo Kanner supposedly invented the word)!
Then there's Eugene Bleuler's use of "autistic" to describe a phase of the schizophrenia he reported in his papers (in English and German) of 1912.
Leo Kanner described "autistic disorders". This phrase no more defines "autism" than the phrase "Norwegian rat" defines Norwegians! Why can't anyone here understand basic English usage of descriptive labels????????????
If this "autism" research industry can't get it's fundamental definitions straight, little wonder that it makes so little progress!
Hi,
I'm an academic physician (formerly at Harvard and Stanford) who found your blog while looking for the best health writers. I think your writing is great! I would like to feature you in the Autism & Autism Spectrum Community on Wellsphere, a top 10 health website that has well over 2 million visitors monthly.
If you would like to learn more, just drop me an email to Dr.Rutledge@wellsphere.com
I've been reading your blog for a little while now. I think your story is very interesting and you have a lot of expertise to share with others.
I work for Trusera, an online health network. I'd love to talk to you about a blogging program to help build the Autism Community. You can contact me at tara.holahan@trusera.com
Thanks and take care,
Tara
This is a great blog, shame it hasn't been updated in a while. I'd love to talk to you about blogging about autism if you are interested in continuing
- Tara
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