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Articles
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A Case for Neurobiological Work-up in Autism
- Glenn Vatter |
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A Cognitive Theory of Pretense - by
Shaun Nichols, Department of Philosophy,
College of Charleston and Stephen Stich, Department of Philosophy and
Center for Cognitive Science, Rutgers University |
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A
preliminary study of individuals with autistic spectrum disorders in three
special hospitals in England by Dougal Julian Hare - Clinical
Psychologist, NAS; Judith Gould - Clinical Director, NAS; Richard Mills -
Director - NAS Services, and Lorna Wing - Consultant Psychiatrist, NAS.
*This work was carried out when working for the National Autistic Society
at the Centre for Social and Communication Disorders, Elliot House,
Bromley, Kent.  |
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A Taxpayer-Funded Clinical Trials Registry and Results Database
It already exists within the US Food and Drug Administration - Erick
H. Turner is a former clinical reviewer of psy-chotropic drugs at the United
States Food and Drug Administration. He is currently the medical director of
the Mood Disorders Program at the Portland Veteran Affairs Medical Center,
assistant professor of psychiatry, and assistant professor of pharmacology
and physiology at Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, Oregon,
United States of America. E-mail:
turnere@ohsu.edu by Erick H. Turner
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Adding a chromosome may treat disease by NewScientist.com |
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Addressing the Interface Between Pediatrics and Psychiatry
- Shortly after completing my training in both pediatrics and
psychiatry, I spoke with a retired child and adolescent psychiatrist who had
invested his career in improving the relationship between pediatrics and
psychiatry. As I excitedly told him about plans to focus my own career on
the interface between the disciplines, he wistfully stared off into the
distance, then respectfully observed, "Hope springs eternal now, doesn't
it?" It is no accident that I continue to think of him often. A quick
MEDLINE search gives reason for despair--collaboration between pediatrics
and psychiatry has been a topic of interest, discussion and annoyance for
half a century, not only in the United States, but also in a host of
different countries and cultures. Parallel systems of care for pediatric
physical and mental health problems persist despite recommendations to
better integrate existing research-based knowledge into routine clinical
practice (e.g., U.S. Public Health Service, 2000). Yet despite several
"botched beginnings" between the disciplines and the imperfect nature of
existing knowledge and practice, there truly is reason for hope. Psychiatry
and its affiliated disciplines now offer a better product that is
increasingly relevant to the pediatricians and family physicians who are
being called on to manage youths with mental disorders in traditional
medical settings by John V. Campo, M.D. / Psychiatric
Times  September 2004 Vol. XXI
Issue 10 |
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Aerobics for the brain -
30 minutes of customized mental calisthenics
help students overcome theirlearning disabilities at a new Toronto
private school. LUMA MUHTADIE reports by LUMA MUHTADIE |
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Advances in diagnosis and treatment of autism, Alzheimer's, epilepsy,
fetal brain imaging - Neuroscience and radiology professionals
from around the globe demonstrate how imaging technology is key to
best practices in medicine by ErurekAlert |
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American Psychiatric Association Urges Caution, Research & Disclosure on
Antidepressants -
In oral and written testimony, the American Psychiatric Association (APA)
said today at a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) hearing that caution,
additional research and full disclosure are needed with respect to a group
of antidepressants known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or
SSRIs. The APA also said that, because a significant minority of children
and adolescents with depression do not respond to an initial medication,
it is important for physicians and patients to have access to a full range
of medications to treat pediatric depression - an illness with significant
long-term consequences, including an increased risk for suicide.
Source
: Onlypunjab.com Team |
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An Exciting Way to Raise Kids' IQs
- Quick! Sign your children up for weekly piano or voice lessons, and
in the space of just nine months their IQs may very well be higher. |
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An Introduction to the Medical Aspects of Autism |
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Aping Dr Dolittle /
A Japanese researcher reckons he will soon have monkeys communicating with
humans. And, Laura Spinney finds, it could reveal how language evolved. - In
a laboratory in Saitama, central Japan, monkeys are behaving strangely. If
someone sticks out a tongue, they do the same. If a person goes to unclip
the latch on a box, the monkeys follow suit. If they need a rake to reach a
piece of fruit, they ask for it with a special call. All of which is
confounding experts, because none of it should be possible. Monkeys in the
wild rarely ape, and as far as we know, they never, ever, ask for rakes by
the Guardian |
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Are we obsessed with sleep?
- The search for a good night's sleep has become an obsession. New
sleeping drugs have been developed, mattresses have been redesigned, and
the number of sleep clinics in the United States has jumped from 300 in
1995 to 900 in 2005. And it's not just adults that suffer from this
nighttime madness - teens, children and the elderly are sleep-deprived,
too. |
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Autism cases exaggerated by paediatricians by The World Today
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Autism gene discovered - Researchers at Mount Sinai School of
Medicine are first to strongly link a specific gene with autism. While
earlier studies have found rare genetic mutations in single families,
a study published in the April issue of the American Journal of
Psychiatry is the first to identify a gene that increases
susceptibility to autism in a broad population in Medical Science News |
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Autism May Result From Genetic Mish-Mash -
Complex Chains of Genetic Events May
Explain Autism Paradox. Autism results from a complex interplay
between genes and things that affect gene function, a new theory proposes by
Daniel Denoon |
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Autism Spectrum Disorders Outcome Study - Portland State
University |
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Autism: Why Do Some Develop Then Regress?
- Most children with autism show developmental differences early in life,
usually involving their ability to communicate. But new University of
Michigan research examines the 20 to 40 percent of youngsters who appear to
develop communication skills, then regress. The largest known study of
its kind offers a host of new details on autism with regression, including a
link between regression and a family history of autoimmune thyroid disease,
an association with gastrointestinal symptoms and more findings offering a
better picture of autism's causes. Source: University Of Michigan
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Autistics' problem 'reading' faces not related to identifying them
... - people
with social developmental disorders like autism, the ability to
recognize a face may not be related to how well they process facial
expression as previously thought, a new study suggests. INDEPTH:
Autism
People with autism, Asperger's syndrome and other social-emotional
processing disorders have difficulty communicating and are akward at
interacting with others. Social skills such as judging whether a
listener is interested in a conversation may not develop properly.
Researchers in Canada and the U.S. studied whether the problems of
"reading" facial expressions in those with the disorders was linked to
problems interpreting emotions or assessing faces. By CBC News
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In Autism, Related Disorders, Recognizing Emotion Is Different
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In contrast to previous reports, for those with autism or Asperger’s
syndrome, recognizing facial expressions is separate from
identifying familiar faces, according to a study published in the
November 22, 2005, issue of Neurology, the scientific journal of the
American Academy of Neurology. Those who had an impaired ability to
process facial identity were no different than those with normal
facial identity ability, when it came to processing facial
expression. Led by researchers in the U.S. and Canada, the study
examined 26 adults diagnosed with either autism, Asperger’s
syndrome, social-emotional processing disorder, or both Asperger’s
and social-emotional processing disorder. The shared trait of these
disorders is social dysfunction. The individuals took a variety of
tests to measure famous face recognition, recognition of non-facial
emotional cues (from voices or bodies), recognition of basic
emotions (happy, sad, angry, fearful), and recognition of a complex
mental state (reflective, aghast, irritated, impatient) presented by
a pair of eyes. / Release |
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Babies at risk from stress in pregnancy / Mothers' anxiety levels linked
to autism and dyslexia. - An intriguing link between levels of anxiety in
pregnant women and the damaging effect on the brain of the unborn child will
be shown this week in a new study of ambidextrous children. Researchers have
discovered that women who are very anxious in the middle of their
pregnancies are significantly more likely to have a child who is
ambidextrous or 'mixed handed', a condition associated with autism, dyslexia
and hyperactivity. It is the first time scientists have found such a link,
and they believe it may be necessary for midwives to tackle mothers' stress
levels to reduce the effects on the foetus by Jo Revill |
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Babies'
sighs reboot brain - "A baby's sweet sighs may do more than endear it
to its parents, an international team of researchers says. Sighs may help
reset regular breathing patterns and help lungs to develop," by Reuters |
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Battling Insurers Over Autism Treatment
- It took Beverly Chase 14 months of fighting with her health plan, Cigna
Behavioral Health, to get payment for autism treatments for her 4-year-old
son, Jake. This, despite considerable leverage on her side: a state law in
Indiana, where she lives, requires insurers to pay for the behavioral
therapies that parents say can produce striking improvement in autistic
children. Cigna did not respond to her request for months, and later argued
that her son's therapist was not properly accredited. Even after the plan
agreed to contribute to the costs, Mrs. Chase, who lives in Avon, Ind., said
she still had to make $500 a month in co-payments by Milt Freudenheim
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Brain activity, including memory-processing, changes in Tourette
syndrome by Washington University School of Medicine |
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Brain can be trained to process sound in alternate way, study shows -
UCSF scientists have found that the brains of rats can be trained to learn
an alternate way of processing changes in the loudness of sound. The
discovery, they say, has potential for the treatment of hearing loss,
autism, and other sensory disabilities in humans. It also gives clues, they
say, about the process of learning and the way we perceive the world. "We
addressed a very fundamental question," says Daniel B. Polley, PhD, lead
author of the study. "When we notice a sound getting louder, what happens in
our brain so that we know it's getting louder?" Polley is a postdoctoral
research fellow in the laboratory of senior author Michael M. Merzenich,
PhD, co-director of the Coleman Memorial Laboratory in the UCSF Keck Center
for Integrative Neuroscience and UCSF professor of otolaryngology. The
study was published recently in Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences (November 16, 2004) by the
University of California - San Francisco /
Press Release |
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Brain scan findings 'throw new light on autism' - New Scientist
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Brains of people with autism recall letters of the alphabet in brain areas
dealing with shapes
/ Finding supports theory that autism results from failure of brain
areas to work together - In contrast to people who do not have autism,
people with autism remember letters of the alphabet in a part of the brain
that ordinarily processes shapes, according to a study from a collaborative
program of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of
the National Institutes of Health. The study was conducted by researchers in
the NICHD Collaborative Program of Excellence in Autism (CPEA) at the
University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University. It supports a
theory by CPEA scientists that autism results from a failure of the various
parts of the brain to work together. In autism, the theory holds, these
distinct brain areas tend to work independently of each other. The theory
accounts for observations that while many people with autism excel at tasks
involving details, they have difficulty with more complex information./
Press Release |
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Breaking Down the Stereotypes of Science by Recruiting Young Scientists
- If you ask the average ten year old in America what a scientist looks
like, they almost always describe an older man with crazy white hair and a
lab coat. If you ask a group of adolescents how many have looked through a
microscope, few raise their hands. If you discuss the implications of
genetic research with a group of high school students, they're likely to
cut your next class. The reason why these students have such profound
stereotypes of scientists and are less than enthusiastic about science's
impact on society is simple—the lack of exposure they receive during their
pre-college education. According to a preliminary study conducted at
Leicester University in England, students are often repeatedly confronted
with stereotypes of science and scientists via television, cartoon, and
comic book characters as well as uninformed adults or peers (McDuffie
2001) by Jamie Schaefer, Steven A. Farber |
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Bridging Psychology and Mathematics: Can the Brain Understand the
Brain? by Mariano Sigman |
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Carnegie Mellon neuroscientist
develops tool to image brain
function at the cellular level by
Carnegie Mellon University
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Damaged Genes In Aging Human Brain Provide Clues To Cognitive Decline
by Children's Hospital, Boston |
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Depression drug studies show promise, Predix says - Predix
Pharmaceuticals Inc. has a potential treatment for anxiety and depression
that generated encouraging data from early-stage human clinical trials, the
Woburn company announced by Boston Business Journal |
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Detecting autism early a key - Sitting in a
small evaluation room at the University of Washington, with apprehension
written on her face, Christa Zamora turned her eyes toward her son Connor
and contemplated his future, by Anahad O'Connor |
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Diagnosing and coping with autism
- The clock on the wall reads five minutes to 4 p.m. as 3-year-old
Kaitlyn Lempert runs to her family's living room window asking, "Where's
Logie?" She has her answer about 10 minutes later when her 6-year-old
big brother steps off the school bus that stops in front of the
Lempert's home. "Sissy. Cuddle. Please," requests Logan Lempert before
his mother can help him take his coat off after he enters his home.
"See," his mother, Donna Lempert says. "Every day, it's the same thing |
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Disgust is good for you, shows study - New Scientist - "The
purpose of disgust has been quantitatively demonstrated for the first
time - it is an evolved response that protects people from disease or
harm." |
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EXPOSURE ANXIETY
AS PART OF TOURETTES ? by Donna Williams |
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Families share 'autistic traits'
/ Relatives of people with autism may display autistic
brain differences and behaviours despite not having the
condition themselves, a study shows. New Scientist says the work
could make it easier to spot families at risk of having an
autistic child. - It could also help in the quest to find
genetic and environmental triggers for the condition, experts
hope. Autism is a disorder that makes it hard for the individual
to relate socially and emotionally to others. / BBC News |
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Family Finds Hope In Holistic Medicine
- When Jacqueline Glover was two months old, she began having seizures, and
suffered through them for nearly two years before she began showing progress
after receiving alternative treatments, by Scott Nicholson |
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Finding the genius within, against the odds - "In his new book, "Burro
Genius" (Rayo, $24.95), the acclaimed author of the 1991 book "Rain of Gold"
uses his own experience as a Mexican-American child struggling with
undiagnosed dyslexia to condemn an educational system he says destroys our
natural genius," by Michelle Morgante |
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First ever population-based study of genetics of autism - PRNewswire
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FIVE genes can cause you depression!
- Five genes have reportedly been identified as being responsible for
a person's state of depression. Deakin University scientists separated
large families of Israeli sand rats for weeks to monitor their responses to
isolation and examined different aspects of their behaviour, including
grooming, social behaviour, the time they spent in the light or dark and how
much they would explore or simply sit in the corner by Web India 123.com |
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Florence drug company makes acquisition - "A Florence company that
specializes in developing medicine for children said today it has made an
acquisition that could lead to a new drug for autistic children with
intestinal ailments," by James McNair |
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Framework for systematically incorporating epigenetic information into
traditional genetic studies - "Scientists at Johns Hopkins are
calling for simultaneous evaluation of both genetic and epigenetic
information in the search to understand contributors to such common
diseases as cancer, heart disease and diabetes," by Medical Science
News |
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Functional connectivity in an fMRI working memory task in high-functioning
autism by Hideya Koshino, Patricia A. Carpenter, Nancy J. Minshew,
Vladimir L. Cherkassky, Timothy A. Keller, Marcel Adam Just. Abstract:
An fMRI study was used to measure the brain activation of a group of adults
with highfunctioning autism compared to a Full Scale and Verbal IQ and
age-matched control group during an n-back working memory task with letters.
The behavioral results showed comparable performance, but the fMRI results
suggested that the normal controls might use verbal codes to perform the
task while the adults with autism might use visual codes. The control group
demonstrated more activation in the left than the right parietal regions,
whereas the autism group showed more right lateralized activation in the
prefrontal and parietal regions. The autism group also had more activation
than the control group in the posterior regions including inferior temporal
and occipita | | | |
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