It Takes Brains! - Autism Brain Net

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Solve...

There's that word again...

I was filling the donation form all out, but was stopped in my tracks at the ZIP-CODE, so many U.S. websites can't seem to comprehend that there are other styles of zip-codes, such as Canadian, which are alpha-numeric and six-digits, not merely five numerical.

I shall be donating a finger when I die; guess which one.

"Solve Autism".

Umno.

I'll donate my backside, so they can kiss my autistic ass long after I'm gone.

I would worry about what they want to do with it. I don't mind donating any other organ, but NO ONE touches my brain.

I'm thinking of signing up for this... I'll have to talk it over with my family (and I'm already registered as an organ and tissue donor) but this would be really interesting!

already a donor.

Having studied neuroscience, I think this is a fantastic idea. They could have mine, but I don't want to inconvenience my family members who may be overwhelmed at the time of my death. I'll re-visit it as I get closer to an expected exit date.

Without a brain bank of athletes (mainly pro football players) who had experienced concussions - which is basically all pro football players - we would not know that the incidence of CTE is close to 100% in that group, with or without symptoms.

My husband has Alzheimers, and there still is much to be learned at the cellular level about what causes that.

The other way to answer the same types of questions is to experiment on live humans, something that should cause dread in everyone. They aren't doing that, of course. It would be unethical.

I support science and I'm not afraid of scientists. I'm a hell of a lot more afraid of evangelists, right-wing politicians, and that sort.

Unless autism has a major structural component in the brain, I would think studying live brains would be much more useful. The number of non-invasive, non-harmful, brain scanning techniques grows yearly. These sorts of things can be done ethically and with consent of adults on the spectrum.

I went through a substantial number of medications before I found one that helped reduce the severity of my co-morbids like anxiety and deep depression without exacerbating my less desirable aspie issues like trust or the ability to have personal relationships. One would think that an approach of imaging plus neurochemical analysis in living humans would more likely render information that would help those of us on the spectrum manage some of our more undesirable/unwanted traits or help to find the link between certain debilitating co-morbids and being on the spectrum.

I'm almost 60 and I have managed to make and keep 2 friends in all that time, I want to get close to people but find it virtually impossible to accomplish, even with medication and counseling. My social life has seemingly been a series of acquaintances and co-workers with no one to confide in or trust in any meaningful way. I wouldn't mind some way to manage that in my lifetime

While I'm open to the usefulness of a brain bank for research purposes, I don't think that is going to provide any reasonable level of usefulness in to those of us on the spectrum in our day to day lives.

Maybe I'm alone in that thinking, it certainly wouldn't be a first for me.

I am seeing people have some pensiveness over the use of the word "solve" I don't think that necessarily means 'cure'. I'd want to ask more questions on that to fully understand the context but as it is, it could mean solve in terms of understanding to then be able to address the more severe symptoms. However because Autism Speaks is involved there is cause to think its 'solve' in terms of them wanting to cure/remove/prevent it. I just think there should be some caution on automatically thinking a particular word means something it could possibly not.

For myself I have no problem with donating whatever Science (not necessarily this project) wants from my body that may help someone else. I'm dead so I have no use for it anymore; might as well go to something that does have a use for it. I'm not sure how well I would particularly fit this anyway, as I have another neurological issue that is unrelated to the Autism, so that could make some haziness in what may be causing certain things in my grey matter.

Is Autism Speaks involved? I went to that Brains net website but didn't see any mention of Autism Speaks. The first post in this thread is from several years ago. Maybe the connection with Autism Speaks doesn't even exist any more.

https://www.takesbrains.org The middle section "It takes brains". You have to hit the read more link and Autism Speaks is mentioned in the third paragraph.

OK, I see that now.

While I do support science, if Autism Speaks is really involved as others have mentioned, then I would exercise caution over supporting the campaign.