Autistic Daily

Just as we were talking about autism’s growing popularity on television, yet another primetime television series will feature the spectrum on its show.

Fox’s Mental stars Chris Vance, who plays a psychiatrist named Dr. Gallagher that comes into a Los Angeles hospital with some wildly unorthodox ways (hint: he got naked during the first episode to better connect and gain the trust of a psychotic patient).

This Friday, July 24th at 9/8 Central on Fox, Dr. Gallagher tries to help a young autistic girl who has witnessed a horrible crime.

It will be interesting to see how autism is portrayed on Mental, but the blogger at autisable.com predicts the show will be both heartfelt and respectable of the syndrome.

“I have been watching this show since it’s first episode. I find it to be funny and intriguing. The topics that have been covered so far are handled with care. The main characters interact in a similar way that characters on a soap opera do. I love my daytime shows, so this is a compliment, not an insult.”

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Donna Williams, host of Oddpod, had the chance to sit down with Asperger’s expert Tony Attwood for an hour long podcast.

Here are a few clips from the interview where Tony discusses the problems that occur when a neurotypical partner might feel abandoned in a relationship with an Asperger. Tony suggests that NT partners might benefit from changing their beliefs that their partner is responsible for all their social pleasures.

“And so, with a couple, I’m very concerned that anyone would make the suggestion that that those with Asperger Syndrome are by nature then unable to have good relationships with their partner or be good parents. I mean, that’s a terrible insult to those with Asperger’s because some of my friends and people that I know with Asperger’s Syndrome, I know that they are very good parents, they are exceptionally good parents, and they can be exceptionally good partners. So having Asperger’s Syndrome means that there are certain interpersonal confusing areas and difficulties, but they’re not insurmountable, and you can work on those.”

“It’s a problem of…A difficult relationship may make one or both partners depressed. But that’s a typical phenomenon. I don’t think it necessarily needs a specific label that is exclusive to those with ASD.”

“It’s putting a lot of responsibility onto one person, who then becomes confused over, “What does my partner expect me to be? She’s expecting me to be someone that I find very difficult to be and is artificial.” So, if the person wants a greater social life, etc., well, they get a social life, but [go to a?] party on your own.”

Read the entire transcript of the interview or listen to the podcast at oddpod.donnawilliams.net.

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Scott M on Flickr

Dr. Manuel Casanova, a neuroscientist at the University of Louisville department of Psychiatry, says that although autism and dyslexia may seem like completely different syndromes, they’re highly similar when it comes to brain connectivity.

In short, both favor one type of connectivity over another.

Casanova and his colleagues mapped the way tiny strands of brain tissue – called cortical cell minicolumns – develop and connect in normal people and in people with autism, dyslexia and other language problems.

Previous research shows people with autism may have brains that favor shorter connections between these cortical cell minicolumns, allowing them to excel at mathematics and visual discrimination tasks.

Oppositely, the dyslexic brain seems to favor longer connections between the columns, which may explain why these individuals are better at abstract, creative thinking.

Casanova’s research can be found in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.

via louisville.edu

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