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Sharing
the news:
Chapter
member provides insights
from
recent Autism Conference
By
Eileen Stroud
On
Sunday, April 22nd, I attended a symposium at
the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in New York
City. It addressed "New Insights in the Diagnosis,
Neurobiology, Genetics and Treatment of Autism".
As I am unable to thoroughly cover all of the
topics that were presented, I think it best if I share
a "Cliff Notes" synopsis of the most relevant material
of the day. For anyone interested in more detailed information,
I have given a book covering the day's presentation
to our chapter's lending library.
At the sign-in desk, I was startled to look up and see
Temple Grandin standing off to the side a few feet away.
She was very distinctive in her signature cowgirl outfit.
I was immediately struck by her demeanor. Although
she was right there, she did not establish eye contact
with anyone around her, not even the escort who stayed
right by her side. She was quite accessible, but
at that time I did not see any of the attendees approach
her.
During the welcome and introductions, a representative
of the Seaver Autism Research Center, which is part
of Mt. Sinai, told us that a press release was being
prepared to announce that a second gene had been isolated
and identified as relevant to autism. It was interesting
to learn that, whereas a single gene has been identified
as being responsible for Retts Syndrome, researchers
now believe that a mix of several genes is responsible
for autism. The studies in this area are focusing
on a population of twins who both have a diagnosis of
autism; these studies are ongoing at several sites around
the world. Later this year the groups are going
to get together and share their research and hopefully
reach some definitive conclusions.
Temple Grandin was the
first speaker. She was very personable, very eloquent,
and quickly had her audience in awe. She focused
much of her presentation on the importance of identifying
the strengths of the autistic individual and building
on them with a view to the future and gainful employment.
Among the careers for visual thinkers that she proposed
were: photographer, equipment designer, handcrafter,
auto mechanic, drafter, graphic artist, and computer
programmer. Ms. Grandin's mother was in the audience
and I wished that she was one of the speakers, as I
couldn't help but think how great it would be to hear
her side of their life together. Later, during a break,
Ms. Grandin found herself surrounded by people, some
asking questions and others seeking her autograph.
She was very accommodating and did not seem at all ill
at ease.
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The
next speaker, from the Autism Research Centre, Cambridge University,
spoke to the question, "Is autism an extreme of the male brain?"
This theory stems from the indisputable fact that many more
males than females are affected by autism (10:1 by some research).
This theory was first put forth by Hans Asperger, and the
British researchers have put it to the test.
They defined the female brain as "empathizing",
involved in the social world, wherein one uses thoughts and
feelings to identify mental states and respond with appropriate
responses. They defined the male brain as "systemizing",
more into a non-personal world, which is rule based and factual,
driven by a need to analyze and build a system. The
researchers showed their test subjects a cartoon wherein a
linear rectangular box was surrounded by three shapes: a large
triangle, a small triangle, and a circle. The cartoon shows
the rectangle opening and closing, the shapes spinning around,
bouncing off of each other, and alternately being admitted
to and discharged from the rectangle.
The non-autistics assigned human
attributes to the figures. For example, one non-autistic test
subject said that "the rectangle was the school and the big
triangle was the class bully and the little triangle was a
new student. The spinning and twirling was the conflict of
the new student. Ultimately, the circle helped the small
triangle to be accepted and admitted to the class." In contrast,
the autistics reported the happenings just as they occurred.
They said things like, "the big triangle spun around and hit
the little triangle, then the circle hit the side of the rectangle
and broke the side and it got out of the box. Next, the big
triangle bounced around the rectangle and hit the little triangle".
Of particular interest was the
finding (based on the population studied here) that 12-1/2
% of the autistic subjects had fathers who were engineers
and 21% of the autistic subjects had both fathers and
grandfathers who were engineers.
The next speaker presented information about "Eye Tracking
Studies of Social Cognition in Autism". Researchers,
utilizing sophisticated eye tracking devices on both autistic
and non-autistic subjects, recorded where the subjects eyes
scanned during a movie. The movie they used for their
test was "Who is Afraid of Virginia Wolf". The findings
were startling. The eyes of the non-autistic subjects
were found to scan primarily the eyes of the speakers, with
occasional glances to objects in a scene. By contrast, the
eyes of the autistic subjects were found to scan only the
mouths of the speakers, back and forth, with only very infrequent
glances at objects in the scene.
(continued on next page)
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