Autistic Daily

Alexander Tundakov on Flickr

Breast feeding has been linked to many benefits for both baby and child, so it sounds surprising that anyone would link it to an increase in autism for the child.

The problem, is not with breastfeeding, however, but with toxins that leak into breast milk from the environment, such as PCBs.

This risk is no reason to break out the bottle, says Dr. Chung Wong at autisable.com.

“What we have to remember is that this study was on rats and while it is important to encourage research into the harmful toxins in our environment, and their affect on our babies’ brains and development, the benefits of breastfeeding far outweigh this unproven link to autism. Plus a survey carried out in 2006 – “Breastfeeding, infant formula supplementation, and Autistic Disorder: the results of a parent survey” by Stephen T Schultz et al. concluded that:

“The results of this preliminary study indicate that children who were not breastfed or were fed infant formula without docosahexaenoic acid/arachidonic acid supplementation were significantly more likely to have autistic disorder.”

“Breast is still definitely best.”

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Arturo de Albornoz on Flickr

According to a study by the National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH), which is supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the US Department of Health and Human Services, the rate for autism for children in the U.S. is now at 1%.

However, the study also found that a good majority of these children went on to “lose” the diagnoses later in life or had symptoms that improved so much the condition didn’t affect them.

Other key findings in the study:

1. At some point in their lives, 1-in-63 US children (160-per-10,000) will have an ASD diagnosis
2. The percentage of boys who apparently lost their original diagnoses was 34.6%
3. The percentage of girls who apparently lost their original diagnosis was 44.5%

Read more about the new findings at huffingtonpost.com.

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Marshall Astor-Food Pornographer

Another bonus point awarded to those that subscribe to the theory that vaccines are responsible for autism.

Or, in this case, a vaccine ingredient could be the cause.

A new study is suggesting that an addictive to many vaccines, thimerosal, does indeed induce autism-like neurotoxicity.

Thimerosol was found to be significantly more toxic than other metal compounds examined in the study and produced both cell degeneration and cell death.

Source

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mavi on Flickr

While some individuals with Asperger’s syndrome have difficulty perceiving other people’s states of minds, new research has indicated that a little “push” might do the trick in helping them understand what the other person is thinking.

In the Sally-Anne False Belief Test, an actor places an object underneath a box and leaves the room. Another actor comes in and places the same object underneath a different box. When the original actor returns, researchers track eye movements of the subjects to see if they follow where they think the actor will look for the object.

Normal individuals look underneath the box the actor placed it originally. But the eyes of those on the autistic spectrum look at the box the object was moved to after the original actor left the room, which researchers suggest indicates autistics have trouble understanding the first actor doesn’t have the same viewpoint as they do.

In an experiment using the Sally-Anne False Belief test with Aspergers individuals, researchers found those with Asperger’s looked randomly from box to box unless they were prompted to verbally express which box the actor would look at, which would result in a correct answer.

Researchers suggest this new data could result in programs designed to train Aspergers and others on the spectrum to make more conscious efforts to assess others’ motivations.

via scientificamerican.com

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Green Flames09 on Flickr

Although many parents of children with autism may report their children having frequent gastrointestinal problems, new research suggests the GI issues may not be linked to autism.

UK researchers at the Center for Child and Adolescent Health, Bristol, have recently published their results in the Archives of Disease in Childhood journal.

Researchers studied 78 children recognized as having autistic spectrum disorders and 12,906 other children without such disorder.

During the first three years of life, there were no major differences between the groups in such factors as stool color, consistency, the frequency of diarrhea or constipation, and of stomach pain.

Though some children experience more frequent bowel movements around 30 months of age, researchers attributed this to differences in diet.

via news.yahoo.com

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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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slushpup on Flickr

In the first candidate gene study of its kind, scientist have identified 27 genes that play roles either Asperger’s Syndrome and/or autistic traits and/or empathy.

The results from research conducted by Dr Bhismadev Chakrabarti and Professor Simon Baron-Cohen from the Autism Research Centre in Cambridge will be published in the July 16 Autism Research journal.

“These 27 genes represent preliminary leads for understanding the genetic bases of AS and related traits, such as empathy, in the general population,” said Dr. Chakrabarti.

Sixty-eight genes were chosen to be studied that were known to play roles in neural growth, social behavior, or sex steroid hormones.

“We chose to look at the genetics of AS because all other genetic studies have focused on classic autism, which can include learning difficulties and language delay,” added Simon Baron-Cohen. “AS is a more ‘pure’ condition because these other factors are absent. These new results represent a significant advance over our previous work in showing that the sex steroid hormones (e.g. testosterone and oestrogen) influence social development and autistic traits.”

The researchers looked at both adults with a formal diagnoses of Asperger’s and adults in the general population who had filled out the Autism Spectrum Quotient and Empathy Quotient.

via sciencedaily.com

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Honza Soukip on Flickr

Most parents of children with autism would say it’s a no brainer they probably experience more stress than a parent raising a developmentally “normal” child.

But are there unique stresses associated with raising a child with autism in comparison to raising a child with another disability? Do all parents of disabled children experience equal amounts of stress?

Researchers at the University of Washington Autism Center investigated the lives of mothers with children across the disability spectrum-not just autism. They found parents in the autism group had higher levels of stress than parents with children with other disabilities.

“They had higher levels of stress, but the relationship of the stress to problem behavior was different,” said Annette Estes, associate director of the center.

“Problem behavior accounted for more of the stress in moms of children with development delays without autism. For parents of children with autism, even though problem behavior was significantly related to stress, there was more to the story that we did not uncover.”

Read more findings and the Q & A session with Estes at well.blogs.nytimes.com.

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