Vaccines don’t cause autism — the myth just needs to go away.
Genetics may be more important for perfect pitch than musical training
Mozart’s talent for spotting a tone without a reference may be more influenced by genetics than previously thought.
Autism may actually extend across three spectrums, not just one
As if the disorder wasn’t complicated enough.
Music therapy makes children with autism more socially aware
Individuals with autism hear much more than regular people — and music seems to help them communicate better.
DDT exposure in pregnant women linked to autism in offspring
Although the insecticide was banned decades ago, it still persists in the environment.
Children with autism are actually less likely to be vaccinated, new study finds
I’ll be seeing you in the comment section.
New objective blood test could diagnose autism in children
The test could be a game changer for identifying autism.
Older fathers tend to raise geekier children
Age matters!
Baby brain scans and machine learning algorithm can predict autism
Even diagnosing autism is difficult, let alone predict it — from a single scan!
Speech and language deficits aren’t to blame for autistic children’s tantrums
Knowing what it’s not brings us one step closer to understanding what it is.
Autistic toddlers don’t avoid eye contact on purpose. They do, however, miss the social significance of the gaze
A longstanding debate is put to rest.
About 100,000 years ago, people with autism were championed, not shunned, and may even have shaped human evolution
Their unique skills provided a huge advantage to the groups who embraced them.
Why the Anti-Vaxxers Threaten Us All
There is no link between autism and vaccinations. Yet the science has not persuaded anti-vaxxers.
Autistic people have feelings and emotions, study finds
It pains me that studies like this have to be made.
A simple sniff test might diagnose autism in toddlers
Children with autism spectrum disorder do not react as well to pleasant or foul smells compared to non-ASD children. Previously, autistic toddlers were found to have a dampened response to sight, sound and touch. For their study, the researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel used a novel technique to gauge the smell response in both ASD and control groups, with 81% accuracy. The test is unobtrusive and doesn’t require a personal account from behalf of the children – something that can be difficult to do with autistic children, who more often than not are highly uncommunicative. If the test can survive the test of time and other trials, it could very well be used to diagnose autism.
Ecstasy might be used to relieve Anxiety in Autistic adults in new clinical trial
Some researchers are considering a pilot treatment that involves MDMA, the active psychoactive ingredient in ecstasy pills, to help adults diagnosed with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) ooze out anxiety. ASD adults typically report difficulties in bonding with other people and often feel nervous in a social setting. Though illegal in the United States, MDMA has been recently explored for psychotherapeutic purposes with promising results reported in battling addiction or post traumatic stress disorder. If it receives approval – and there’s a great deal of paperwork that needs to be filled before they get the green light – this would make it the first MDMA-assisted therapy for the treatment of social anxiety in autistic adults.
Autism symptoms dramatically improved after treatment with Vitamin D
There’s a growing body of evidence suggesting Vitamin D plays an important role in regulating serotonin. This means it could cause (deficiency) or treat Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) symptoms (supplement). For instance, one study prescribed Vitamin D3 to autistic children in an open trial and had a 80% success rate – that is, the children became less hyperactive, irritable, and engaged far less in stereotypical behavior. The children were also more responsive and compliant to their families.
There may not be such a thing as autism epidemic – the explanation might lie in the diagnosis
Over the last couple of years, cases of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) increased by 30%, according to a reported issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Today, the CDC estimates that one in 150 8-year-olds in the U.S. has an autism spectrum disorder, or ASD. There’s a whole debate surrounding this topic – where does this slew of new cases come from? Are we dealing with an epidemic-like event? It used to be vaccines that took the hit, but this was long debunked. There’s another, maybe more plausible explanation: it’s all a statistical mishap as far as diagnosis goes. In effect, if this is true, ASDs prevalence is stable, it’s in the way we count the cases that the problem might lie.
Autism genes predict higher intelligence – if you’re not autistic in the first place
A link between heightened intelligence and autism has been suspected by scientists based on empirical evidence, and now genetic screening seems to confirm this assumption. It seems people carrying genes that put people at risk of developing autism scored higher on intelligence scores than those who lacked the genes. This held true, however, for people carrying the genes but who didn’t develop autism.
No two autistic brains are alike – each has unique connections
For most people, brains are pretty similar – our connections follow the same pattern, and while there are certainly exceptions, you could say that our brains are connected in pretty much the same way. But for autistic people, things are very different. A new study has found that each autistic brain has unique, highly idiosyncratic connections. We’re only starting to
