Taking part in Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Trial in Oz

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I've been accepted into a Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Trial for ASD people that's being held in Melbourne (Alfred Hospital).

I'll be taking part in late June.

Apparently the author of "Look Me In The Eye" (John Elder Robinson) took part in it as well, and he could gain extra intuitive social awareness while retaining his AS abilities.

Has anybody else taken part in TMS before?

I doubt you will find many people who have undergone the treatment given its experimental status.

Robinson has posted on this site a couple of times and he has a blog where he describes his experiences with this treatment. He comes across as approachable and seems very enthusiastic about the treatment, so there is a good chance if you email or contact him (through his blog for instance) that he would be willing to discuss his experience with you if you cannot find anyone else who has experienced the treatment and want to talk to someone who has direct experience before you undergo it yourself.

I hope you find your experience beneficial.

This that deep brain massage thingy?

My mother's neurologist thinks that's the curative treatment for ASDs (he ain't no dummy).

I don't know what it'd be like waking up to the world (processing everything like normal people do); it seems scary to me, but then, if the input is then able to be processed without pain, I guess it wouldn't hurt.

According to John Elder Robinson's blog article about TMS, he said that it wasn't a cure for ASD, but it decreased his stress when talking to NTs by increasing his innate ability to read body language and tolerate eye contact.

I guess in a world where most people are ignorantly/arrogantly prejudiced towards people with ASDs, it'll make it easier for me to blend in if I were to gain the same effects as him.

As long as I still retain my standard logical state and hyperfocus abilities, then I'll consider it a benefit then...

Well, if we call ASDs a problem with processing external stimuli, which leads on to the various symptoms, then allowing someone to process this stimuli should in theory decrease/remove the symptoms. A lack of eye contact is said to be based on problems with visual processing, for example.

Apart from learned behaviour due to being socially disconnected compared to your peers, it shouldn't change who you are, rather, it'll alleviate the symptoms, primarily ones based on processing external stimuli.

Hmm, interesting.

If it was to reduce my external stimuli processing issues, then it'll open me to new opportunities in which I can be exposed to. On the other hand, it may have the tendency to get me distracted from my original goals...

Yes.

In theory, your brain will have more to take in, which will distract you to some extent, and perhaps you won't be as obsessive over things; however, the grand majority of people that excel in their fields don't have an ASD, so I doubt you'd actually lose anything in regards to functioning. In fact, for most, they'd probably be able to take in other things that allow them to function better in society, compared to being so obsessed over that one thing to exclude all others.

Oh no, generalizing instead of specializing?!

Ok, I shall try my best to not get distracted with other things after the Trial. I shall require more self discipline...

Does anyone know if there is anything happening withing this field in relation to ASD?

The content of this article from November 2013 is promising: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg2 ... utism.html