2 interesting BBC articles

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1, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4491538.stm
and 2, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4464434.stm

Thanks for sharing those.
If you are interested in this you should check out the Discovery Channel this Saturday(8pm central)
It is supposed to be about autism and the brain...called something like ..."inside Rainman"

I thought it was interesting that we have less active..."mirroring" area....I just wished they had called it
what it really is...."monkey see monkey do"....thought I wonder about the aspies who have echoli???
A lot of people here say they are good with mimicing accents....wonder what area that is.


Also,seemed odd that they didnt talk about the importance of the brain area that we have that are larger....Motor Cortex and Basal ganglia...if bigger means more developed as they imply...why isnt this important?These areas are said to be for ....Movement,planning,imitation....Perhaps that explains the
ability to mimic sounds and constant movement(stimming)?I sure cant plan....my executive function is lousy.....

The frontal region is also supposedly less active(understanding others intentions)well that fits,but perhaps it is less developed because we dont see the importance of "others intentions" as we are more focused on our own intentions.I think this area also effects impulse control.....isnt this part of the old "frontal labotomy treatment...ice pick therepy"....less active=more controlled?(ice picks make things less active,I think)Not sure how this applies<or doesnt.I know melt downs do look like "impulse control" to those who arent experiencing the sensitivity over load and reacting to it....

I have read a few other things about the Amygdala being smaller and underactive in autistics....This looks like the area I was told was the "lizard brain" useually associated with basic animal instincts...getting most resources,sex,being alpha....isnt havinf a smaller one of these "more evolved?"

I hope to hear from some people who actually know something about this(as apposed to me who is making assumptions based on half remembered classes in Psyc, 20 years ago)

These were both interesting articles. I'd be really interested in seeing somebody look at the physiological basis for those weird obsessions that occupy so much of our brain activity.

Oh no...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4697057.stm

Interesting, definitely.

The thing is, I'm all for them finding out the genetic causes of Autism/AS but they always have to go one step further and think about developing a 'cure.'

this whole 'cure' thing keeps making me flash back to X-Men 3.


I call dibs on being Wolverine.

I thought X-Men 3 presented a good study of the cure question...except for one thing. Their mutations were a lot more interesting and exciting to live with than my asperger's.

This type of research costs a lot of money. When they apply for funding, they have to convince whoever has the money that their research is a higher priority than somebody elses. You don't get money to do research like this by saying, "I just think it would be interesting to know."

Overall, yeah, but then think of all the federally-funded studies for useless crap.
There was one done several years back (if I manage to remember, I'll see if I can't find the reference) at a university in Louisiana that managed to discover that cats will almost always blink when hit on the head with a hammer.