The 2007 AWARES Conference is open

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Maybe some of you might remember this from last year. It's an online conference where a lot of professionals, auties, parents, etc., meet up, read papers, and discuss things in a forum format. It's really cool.

http://www.awares.org/conferences/default.asp

If you registered last year or the year before, just sign in. Unfortunately, there is a small joining fee this year of £3. If you're not from the UK, it's okay; they are doing it by credit card so you don't need to worry. I believe the USD-UK exchange rate is about $2 to £1.

If you've never registered, register and the above still applies (as for the fee).

Here's the list of people that are there or are going to be there:

* Dr Lorna Wing
* Professor Rita Jordan
* Professor Simon Baron-Cohen
* Professor Anthony Bailey
* Dr Gary Mesibov
* Dr Susan Folstein
* Dr Darold Treffert
* Donna Williams
* Wendy Lawson
* Theo Peeters
* Hilde de Clerq
* Carol Gray
* Dr Dermot Bowler
* Professor Robert DeLong
* Professor Isabelle Rapin
* Dr Morton Gernsbacher
* Dr Connie Kasari
* Dr Gene Blatt
* Dr Manuel Casanova
* Dr Fiona Scott
* Professor Michael Fitzgerald
* Professor Stephen von Tetzchner
* Dr Nils Brose
* Dr Peter Enticott
* Dr Dawn Wimpory
* Dr Rajesh Kana
* Dr Mary Konstantareas
* Gillian Stanley
* Wendy Keay-Bright
* Dennis Debbaudt
* James Graham
* Nicholas Graham
* Carole Rutherford
* Dr Pat Levitt
* Michelle Dawson
* Dr Antonio Hardan
* Dr Karl Reichelt
* Susanne Bejerot
* Dr Aage Miller
* Dr Bernard Crespi
* Dr Christopher Badcock
* Dr Anneli Kylliainen
* Dr Letitia Naigles
* Dr Susan Levy
* Dr Mary Konstantareas
* Dr Tullia Lepisto
* Dr Kylie Gray
* Dr Marlene Behrmann
* Ash Nayate
* Dr Silvana Batista Gaino
* Dr Umberto Balattin
* Eric Chen
* Dr Robyn Young

Hope to see you there. It just opened this morning.

Registered or not, you can't read the full papers, without paying a fee. f**k those people, because in my opinion, they want to keep a selection of the population out of their conference.

their system of payment is rubbish; i seem to have paid £5 into thin air on their donation to register system.
Hope they clear that up, in meantime not too accessible for people with AS, as payment steps are too vague. They say would be enormously helpful if wrote e-mail address in the text comment to accompany the donation; what they mean is that this is ESSENTIAL in order to connect up donation to registration.
So for moment just thrown £5 away!!

hmm
have sent e-mail about this and await reply.

Still can't see papers.


Two hours later ...okay, okay!! It works. I'm on , it just took a while ( a long while ! !). Remember to put in your e-mail on the comment-text panel at end of donation/payment.
There's an interesting paper on peptides to the brain etc which i'm going to carry on reading now i can see it. Thanks for the link, Sophist ! !

well, the paper on peptides to brain was good,.... LOTS of references to studies showing food-opioid peptide involvement in certain aspects of autism expression, as environmental factor interacting with genetic template. Parallel drawn with phenylalanine oddly enough, which is what i likened it ( the gluten and casein opioid peptides role ) to just the other day.
But the conference is very quiet.
I hope it livens up.
There are heaps of other interesting looking papers to read so will go back, and of course i posted something.
The stuff about clock genes and autism is on the programme aswell, about how timing difficulties are genetic and linked to autism.
Thanks again for link, Sophist.

Well, i've visited the conference again.
Aswell as the paper by Dr. Reichelt linking/referencing many studies showing food-opioid role in many aspects of autism expression ,
and the paper on genes for clock/timer functioning being altered in AS,
i found a super article by Donna Williams, ( autist, autism advisor, and author of 7 books apparently) suggesting that autism is currently functioning as a kind of big chest to put every thing dysfunctional ( pervasive development disorders in widest terms) in without looking too closely at the various ways the many expressions of autism may be being created; metabolic, personality disorder, motor , dyslexias/dysphasies etc, and others, and therefore without distinguishing between how they need treating/adapting to. Some may be genetically AND environmentally produced, some genetically AND sensory-poor nurture produced, etc etc; all with genetic basis, of predisposition, weakness, some already disabling on birth, others to which to which environment often makes fatal contribution and turns it into disorder rather than difference.
She prefers to talk about the issues we have separately, and not just say "autism". As in say " i have difficulty with executive functions", or " i have trouble with face recog, " etc. Keep it specific, cos often the word autism is not useful for treatment, OR understanding and acceptance.

Then there was a super article on " Autism as distributed disorder" by Dr. Ralph-Axel Muller, in cognitive science, about how the differences in brains of those with AS disorders are different in many ways, that the functioning is different all over, not just in areas where visible/noticeable problems etc.

And i discovered that apparently something that aspies and HFAS excel at is "visual search". Which I loved reading cos I do, definitely, and have always been very proud of it too ! !

But what am mostly thinking after pootling around the conference is that all of this is the first wave of environmentally poisoned humans.
That the increased chemicals in the air, water and food, and medicine etc, are too much for many metabolisms, and the weaker are falling. Where an aspie was well and aspieish with all that aspie power before now that aspie is ill. And in trouble. The best minds, some of the most sensitive/discerning/discriminating minds but therefore most in fragile equilibrium, of humanity are being poisoned into disabled states by the chemicals everywhere.( And i don't think NTs moods are improving either!!)
This isn't an accident. Well, it is, like a road accident; the "hit and run driver" is still out there.
It's not the climate we should worry about, it's human brains/minds going down the pan.

Anyway, enough sadness and anger.
Conference is interesting. Do visit.

There's been a bit more activity , which is good.
Also just realised i get access to the last two years of the conference, and that they look really interesting. So am going to look at some of the papers on there too now.

There's some wonderfully radical ideas about autism in the papers at this and last years conference, not at all the mainstream pharmaceutical-interested "cure" attitudes at all. It's really inspiring reading them.

I wish there had been an immunologist at the conference this year. Some of the immuno stuff really interests me.

I'm glad Dr. Wing has showed up a bit. I'd been wanting to ask her some stuff.

Still waiting for Dr. Baron-Cohen... **taps foot**