Maybe that's because Autism is a prism through which we can all view ourselves with respect to all our perceived strengths and weaknesses, our normalcy and weirdness...maybe it is even a personified, microscosmic means of defining human nature. Autism also has a certain intellectual appeal, because it presents a conundrum for anyone interested in resolving questions in the fields of neurology, psychiatry, education, psychology and even philosophy. For one thing, it is a disorder that defies the linear determinism that characterizes the scientific method. All kinds of independent variables have been isolated for purposes of observing reactions, tendencies, symptoms (i.e. dependent variables). There have been biochemical studies on serotonin, norepinephrine, acetylcholine and various other neurotransmitters. While some autistic people seem to have anomalies, most do not. Meanwhilem studies show that some normals do. There have been studies on brain and metabolic structure and function. For example,PET studies on temporal lobe metabolism suggested temporal rates are slower for some autistics but not all and once again...many normals had slow temporal lobe metabolic rates as well. Same thing for mid-brain (Limbic system) and brain stem structure and function, and even microscopic studies on the maturation of cortical cells. At present, there are learned people who think autism is a frontal lobe dysfunction, a temporal lobe dysfunction, a limbic disorder, a metabolic disorder and there are a wide variety of other ostensible etiologies -including the "cold-mother" theory that seems to have resurfaced lately. Through all this, one constant and very ironic fact emerging from neuroscientific studies on autism is that when all is said and done, autistic people appear to have essentially normal brains. On its face that almost seems absurd. We're talking about language, cognitive, motor, proprioceptive, anditory, memory and emotional deficits - which pretty much covers the entire brain, yet no consistent signs of either an abnormal biochemical or structural problem. One problem with research on Autism (there are actually many) is that Autistic individuals are highly changeable. For example I have very personal knowledge of a child who could not walk up a flight of stairs using alternate steps at age 8, yet learned to ride a bicycle at age 9. I've seen autistic individuals behave as though they can't hear anything, then react to sounds so subtle that no one else in the room picked up on them. As anyone familiar with the syndrome knows, they are hypo-vigilant and also hyper-vigilant, memory deficient and mnemonically superb, that they can have askew eye contact yet pick up on incredibly small visal details using peripheral vision. With that changeability in mind, it is easy to imagine that a researcher spending some time with an autistic test subject might not get an accurate picture of the syndrome or the subject - no matter how precise his instruments and experimental design. Sad to say, there is something very non-deterministic about Autistic people. By the same token, a parent who sees a child every day but leaves some of the teaching to others might not see the child's potentials - or deficiencies. The question is: what would someone who has worked with and lived with an autistic child..and worked with others see in this strange and unpredictable syndrome. Well perhaps he might provide the following account. BRAINS, TUNNELS AND INTERSECTIONS Despite its mystery, the essence (not the cause) of Autism is perfectly obvious. It is a disorder created by a tunnel central nervous system. For convenience sake - call it TCNS. His explanation is more complex that I have time to explain here but in case you're in a jam trying to make sense of it, you can find your compass by comparing it to Piaget's twin notions of schemes and inputs. A scheme is a memory, attitude, or cognition that sweeps and scans the mind so as to compare and contrast inputs with prior experience. Out of that process comes assimilation, accommodation and of course learning and development. Pribram seems to be saying this scheme process can be viewed not as a site in the brain but as a rhythm in the brain, i.e. a set of impulse codes that enable a person to have a frame of reference, for purposes of integrating experience, forming plans, expectations, and a sense of identity. I wonder if it is the rhythm that is problematic with the autistic person. Whatever chemical process, glial cell nutrition deficit or wave creating phenomenon that provides context for the normal human brain is out of kilt in the autistic brain - perhaps that's why structural studies show no consistent abnormalities and why their experience and behavior seem to singular and compulsive. Whether or not that's true, it would be interesting to see brain researchers going in a different direction in the future, i.e beyond both structure and function into the interpretation of impulse codes, wave computation and how they affect learning, memory, language and general orientation. Any comments by people interested in autism are welcome Bob D.
To anyone who has either parented or worked with an autistic child, the frustration inherent in trying to determine why they do what they do is palpable. To those unfamiliar with the syndrome, except perhaps from movies or media accounts, it is also intriguing. All these emotions are justified because autism is not just a developmental disorder but a great mystery. It is the great white shark of the developmental community - most people don't necessarily want to hang out with them, but are nonetheless fascinated by them.
A normal brain is more an intersection than a tunnel. While certain pathways are isolated and uncompromised by processes like lateral inhibition and myelination, neurons and connections typically start off fast via the all or none (sodium pump) firing mechanism, then slow down and begin to blend with other pathways via what Karl Pribram discovered to be a slow potential microstructure. Whole distinct electrochemical processes set off the neuron, it appears something else sustains the activity along the way to disparate brain circuits. Pribram believes that sustainer is not a material thing per se but a wave function, i.e an impulse code that guides, computes, sustains and hooks up associations as a kind of overseer process.
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