Friday, March 9, 2007

Altercentric Perception by Infants and Adults in Dialogue Summary

Journal 16: Summary 8:

A symptom I have previously discussed pertaining to autism has been a diminished or complete lack of language skills. In an earlier post I have also discussed a possible debunking of this symptom with the Facilitated Communication method. I will now explain further the mechanisms of speech and dialogue to explain why Facilitated Communication may not work in many individuals with autism and similar disorders. By this explanation Facilitated Communication should be dispelled and if not for the fact that it is a reality in many lives I would find it difficult to believe. There is no explanation for why Facilitated Communication works in some but an explanation of why it does not work in others may be revealed in the following summary.

Think of how we speak to one another. Think about what is said of couples who complete one another sentences. If I said to you “I am going to the ….”. In anticipation of the end of my sentence you may be mentally filling in the blank; the movies, the park, the bathroom. The same way a mother sitting in the park with her child knows before her child ever finishes the sentence “ Mommy I need to…” ‘go to the bathroom’ her mind automatically fills in as she gets up to escort him to the bathroom. This demonstrates Stein Braten’s theory of Ego’s virtual participation in Alter’s complementary act. The Ego is the person doing the act (the speaker in this first case) and the Alter is the person receiving the act (the listener in this first case). By virtual participation he explains that while the Ego is speaking the Alter is actively participating in listening and is anticipating the meaning of the Egos words, while the Ego is, in turn, listening to himself speak and anticipating the response of the Alter. Vice versa, after the Ego has spoken the opposite happens; the Alter speaks after having anticipated and contemplated the words of the Ego, and the Ego now virtually participates, recalls his own act of speech and mentally speaks (in anticipation of the Alter’s speech) to himself, therefore reinforcing his own learning of language. To demonstrate this recall that responses in conversation are almost instantaneous. A question is asked and as we listen; we anticipate the question and contemplate our responses while the Ego is still speaking. (This demonstrates Baron-Cohen’s theory of mindreading discussed earlier in my research.)

The semantics of language are however difficult to define and explain so to further explain his theory Braten describes an example of a behavioral manifestation of this theory in an infants feeding time. He calls this part of his study early infant imitation and learning by altercentric participation. Essentially, he demonstrates an 11 1/2 month old child being spoon fed by her mother. The child opens her mouth as the food approaches and swallows the food after the mother places it into her mouth. After some time, and this has been demonstrated as a milestone for learning, the infant takes the spoon from the mother and proceeds to feed the mother. When the child puts the food into the mother’s mouth the child closes her own mouth, as she did when she was eating the food, and swallows. This shows the infant has learned to reenact by first being a participant and then being a virtual participant through the being in the caregiver stance. As Braten explains the infant is “a virtual co-author of their enactments.” The child is now left with a reinforced memory of having been fed and having fed and has learned the action through encoding in the brain by the mirror system.

As I have already discussed a disturbance in the mirror system disables the ability of one to code acts correctly in the brain and learn in the way expressed here by the infant. Braten briefly explains the complications of a faulty mirror system in autistic individuals. He explains that an inability to “transcend own body-centred view points” due to a malfunctioning mirror system makes it nearly impossible to imitate face-to-face situations and therefore it becomes infinitely complicated to teach face-to-face interaction and language to those suffering from mirror neuron dysfunctions like in many autistic people. As for cases of autism where Facilitated Communication has become an answer to this impossibility, it still remains to be researched how these individuals are different and why it works.

Wednesday, March 7, 2007

To Present or to Persuade that is the Question!

Journal 15:























At the beginning of this project I automatically assumed I would be doing a persuasive research paper, however the project since then has taken on a different tone. I admit in the beginning I rushed into this subject and shortly after reading my first few sources and made it my mission to convince everyone in the world that mirror neurons were the most cutting edge answer to all of autisms problems.With many of the sourcing saying that the discovery of the mirror neuron system was one of the greatest unpublished discoveries of the decade it was easy to become overexcited and a little disappointing when I looked a little further. Scientists always disagree with one another and the facts always tend to support something other than what they are trying to convince us of, this I take to be generally true. Autism research is nothing different; thousands of researchers all doing independent research and all presenting accurate, but conflicting findings. What I have found concerning mirror neurons in autism is enough to have convinced me that they play a role in autism, but as a scientist and a researcher myself all I can do, professionally, is present what I have found in an expository research paper and let people make their own educated opinion on the subject. To try to lead people to believe that my opinion is the right one would be embarrassing and unprofessional on my part due to the amount of research that does not agree with my findings. For these reasons my paper will clearly be an expository research paper.

"'Helping' Autistic People to Speak" Summary

Journal 14: Summary 7:

This Article was linked to the other Time Magazine article I summarized called “Inside the Autistic Mind”. It is written by the same author, Claudia Wallis, and is just as interesting as the last. The article is about facilitated communication, a method of communication used by autistic individuals. With this method a keyboard is usually used by the autistic person to type their thoughts. In most cases another person, called the facilitator, helps to steady and guide the autistic individual in their communication. Sometimes physical support is needed for example leaning on a shoulder, or holding a hand. The method is somewhat controversial. Some claim that it is really the facilitator doing the communicating. In studies where the facilitator was separated from the autistic individual, a small number of facilitators were shown to be communicating their own feelings and not those of the autistic individual. The facilitators were not shown to be purposefully guiding the communication but rather were unaware of that they were leading the conversations. In more cases than not it was shown to be successful, however there are still problems with the system. Loved ones can inadvertently guide ones communications without realizing it, but for those who have learned to use facilitated Communication without physical support it has changed their lives. Being able to communicate with the world gives a purpose to living as Chandima Rajapatirana says through his keyboard "FC doesn’t cure you, but it gives you a reason to live." The effects of this form of communication on an autistic individual’s life can obviously be seen in this statement.

Works cited:

Wallis, Claudia . “’Helping’ Autistic People to Speak”. Time 10 May 2006. 7 Mar. 2007 < http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1192775,00.html>

*Photograph from Time Magazine. Chandima Rajapatirana uses facilitated communication to speak with his mother, Anoja, who is also one of his facilitators.
COURTESY THE RAJAPATIRANA FAMILY

International Meeting for Autism Research; The Latest and Greatest

Journal 13:

Recently I discovered this source while searching on the Autism Speaks website. This is a relatively important breakthrough in my research. The source itself is an overview of the International Meeting for Autism Research that took place in June 2006. It brought together almost 900 scientists all actively studying Autism. It outlined every aspect being researched and all of the latest breakthroughs in autism research.

One of the first issues discussed at the meeting was early diagnosis. Currently autism cannot be properly diagnosed until age 2 but Sally Rogers, a researcher at the High Risk Baby Siblings Research Consortium, discussed her findings in a study done on 6 month old babies. She found faint sings of autism in children that were more prone to looking at their mothers mouth rather that into their eyes. This shows an early disconnection with the person closest to them, a very usual symptom of autism. This makes me wonder about whether this can be associated with the mindreading studies I have been using. They too tested infants around 6 months and found that they were not yet able to mindread, only more towards seven or eight months did this ability begin to show in the tests done by Prof Claes von Hofsten. Either way if early sings such as the eye patterns that Rogers saw can lead to early EEG testing and early diagnosis it would be a step forward.

Another very popular discussion at the meeting was genetics and the prevalence of autism in families. A lecture given by Conrad Gilliam discussed genetic screening and a dozen different chromosomes that have been shown to contain incongruities in autistic individuals. From my own understanding of genetic screening, without one specific mutation on a specific chromosome to look for it would be difficult to give a sure diagnosis using this method. With Down syndrome amniocentesis can be used to see the extra copy of chromosome 21, but in autism no one chromosome is a cause making this method very unstable. One possible effect that gene abnormalities could have is, in brain development for example, when neurons are developing each one has a specific area to travel to, but if those signals are interrupted and the neuron does not travel to the correct place it could result in deficiencies in some areas and in others special talents. In an article in Time magazine Claudia Wallis writes “Autistic people have been shown to use their brains in unusual ways: they memorize alphabet characters in a part of the brain that ordinarily processes shapes. They tend to use the visual centers in the back of the brain for tasks usually handled by the prefrontal cortex.” This could be explained with the above genetic theory. Also discussed as a part of the discussion on genetics was the prevalence of autism in families with autism. Studies done on language and social communications on autistic twins, autistic non-twin siblings, and the parents of the children showed support for genetic factors and also suggested a higher rate of autism in families. The Autism Genome Project (AGP) gave lectures on their first findings in their completed genome scan. Their preliminary findings showed two chromosomal regions and three other possible sites that could have susceptibility to autism. Research in this area is still being analyzed and could provide more breakthroughs when fully deciphered.

The next subject of the meeting was neurobiology and neuroanatomy. “Cynthia Schumann and David Amaral at the MIND Institute at UC Davis reported that the size of the amygdala (an area of the brain that regulates emotion, anxiety and fear) was larger in young children but not adults with autism.” These findings potentially explain emotional and anxiety symptoms in children and adolescence with autism. Studies done by Gene Blatt showed two different neurotransmitter systems; the glutamine and the GABA systems. One of the systems; the GABA system uses a neurochemical known to slow down neuron action. A dysfunction was found in these two systems in individuals with autism which could cause a disruption of the neurons ability to ‘talk’ to one another. This lead to a discussion of the “underconectivity’ theory. This theory says that the brain regions have difficulty communicating with each other in those suffering from autism. “Marcel Just suggested that while different areas of the cortex may be ‘activated' normally in individuals with autism, different brain areas may not be working together effectively, leading to a lower degree of integration of information from sensory and motor inputs.” Mirror neurons were also discussed at the meting showing that a dysfunctional mirror neuron system “could explain many of the core symptoms of autism.” Also EEG could be used to monitor mirror neurons and therefore diagnose autism at an earlier age.

The final discussion was one of the most important; treatments. Current medications and FDA approval for which was discussed citing a need for more research into which medications are working and what symptom they treat. Risperdal, a medication used for aggression, has been called into question due to its affect on the glutamine and GABA systems discussed earlier. Other medications used to control seizures have been shown to be effective and others still are being tested to determine effectiveness.

To conclude the author of this article wrote “The International Meeting for Autism Research provides scientists the opportunity to learn from other researchers so that major discoveries and advances can be made even faster. Scientists cannot conduct research without the ongoing collaboration, input and updates of the most current findings in all areas of autism research, and this meeting makes these advancements possible.” The importance of a meeting such as this one is immeasurable. It is great to make a breakthrough, but without sharing your findings and collaborating with other researchers working towards the same goal, nothing can be done and science cannot move forward.

Works cited:

“Researchers, Scientists Share New Autism Research Findings”. Autism Speaks. June 2006. 7 Mar. 2007.

Wallis, Claudia . “Inside the Autistic Mind”. Time 7 May 2006. 1 Mar. 2007

"The Mind's Mirror" Summary

Journal 12: Summary 6:

I have discussed before in my “research, research everywhere…” post my issues with being able find sources, but many of them have the same information. It is similar in this source, however there is a good bit of new mixed in with all of the old information so, although this may be little shorter than normal, I will only summarize the new and more relevant issues discussed in this article. This article written by Lea Winerman discusses an aspect that has been slightly allusive to me until now. She discusses a study done by Marco Iacoboni in which mirror neurons were shown to be used in determining intention. In the study, the participants were shown a video of a woman at a tea party picking up her cup. Then they were shown a video of the same tea party with crumbs and dishes scattered on the table indicating it was over. The same woman was shown picking up her cup in this context as well. Finally the cup was shown alone in no context. The EEG results showed much more activity in the mirror neuron area during the videos of the tea party than when the cup was removed from context. This shows that the brain was working more to recognize that in the first video the woman was lifting the cup to drink from it and in the second video she was lifting it to clean it. Less brain stimulation occurred during the video of the cup out of any context. The brain worked less to recognize a simple picture on a screen than it did when processing intention and context. "This suggests that the neurons are important for understanding intentions as well as actions," Iacoboni says. Vittorio Gallese, MD, PhD, at the University of Parma is very experienced with mirror neurons and has this to say about their importance in society “This neural mechanism is involuntary and automatic, with it we don't have to think about what other people are doing or feeling, we simply know. It seems we're wired to see other people as similar to us, rather than different. At the root, as humans we identify the person we're facing as someone like ourselves."

Works cited:

Winerman, Lea. “The Mind’s Mirror”. APA Online . Volume 36, No. 9 October 2005. 7 Mar. 2007. < http://www.apa.org/monitor/oct05/mirror.html>

Friday, March 2, 2007

Research, Research Everywhere, but not a Source to Cite

Journal 11:

Type into Google ‘Mirror Neurons’ and see how many results pop up. 927,000 to be exact. This could give an indication of how much information there is on the subject, but to delve a bit deeper we must actually click on some of these 927,000 results. The name Vilayanur Ramachandran , now deeply encoded into my long term memory banks, is everywhere on these sites. He is the leading researcher in this area and is one of the only experts in these particular neurons. Several studies have been done in the United States and several more in countries ahead in neuroscience technologies like China, the United Kingdom, Iceland, Switzerland and Canada. All of the studies done, even with a very wide variety of variables, have the same conclusion. In 80% of the tested individuals with autism spectrum disorders a malfunction in their mirror neuron system is exposed. Many of the sources found using Google are accounts, summaries, and results from these same handful of experiments. Because of the similarity in procedure and results of these studies I am having a lot of trouble finding new sources to use that will not make all of my papers the same drone of information just presented in a different box with a new shinny bow. There is plenty of support for the theory, but not a lot of unique views on the subject because the topic is still relatively new to researchers. However, type ‘autism’ into Google and over 16,600,000 results come out. In discussing the implications of mirror neurons in autism I must establish what autism is and why mirror neurons could be a large piece of the puzzle in some cases of autism. There is not a set standard for what exactly autism is and I will need to discuss that in great detail in my paper. I believe that with expansion and explanation, I can easily write an eight page paper discussing this topic extensively without struggling.

“Inside the Autistic Mind" Summary

Journal 10: Summary 5:

I for one have always been a fan of Time Magazine. No matter what the subject the writers at Time have always had a way of drawing me in and fixing my mind to whatever it is the article is about. This article “Inside the Autistic Mind” by Claudia Wallis is no different. Although the article disagrees with much of what I have been researching I feel that it is necessary to include this point of view in my sources and in my paper. The article begins with a short introduction to a young girl named Hannah. Hannah has a relatively strong case of autism and for the first thirteen years of her life was unable to speak beyond a few repeated phrases. Wallis describes in beautiful detail the groundbreaking moment that Hannah made contact with her outside world for the first time. Using a method called facilitated communication, a system using a keyboard and a facilitator to help controll the communication, Hannah was able to tell her mother that she loves her. Facilitated communication has been the subject of some controversy. Those who appose this method say that the person helping to control the communication is really the one creating the communication, but with Hannah at the keyboard it is clear that her life has been changed. Shortly after this first emotional outreach, Hannah is now learning algebra, biology, and history. Hannah, now nearly 15, is dealing with being autistic in a way that many cannot. With her keyboard she is able to communicate her feelings about being autistic and the nearly 13 years of her life she spent in silence. She writes “Reality hurts.” Although the emotions are difficult for her to handle, Hannah is able to explain her actions and abilities and offer insight into the autistic disorder. For example Hannah explains why she does not look at things directly but rather she uses her peripheral vision to see because her sight is overly sensitive to light.She also has a hypersensitive sense of hearing, being able to hear things at one end of their home that is happening on the other side. Also it has been discovered that Hannah has some very unique gifts. Upon being given a list of 30 math questions Hannah immediately typed the answers to all 30. Hannah has a photographic memory.

Wallis continues on to explain “Autism is almost certainly, like cancer, many diseases with many distinct causes. It's well known that there's a wide range in the severity of symptoms--from profound disability to milder forms like Asperger syndrome, in which intellectual ability is generally high but social awareness is low. Indeed, doctors now prefer the term Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASD). But scientists suspect there are also distinct subtypes, including an early-onset type and a regressive type that can strike as late as age 2.” She describes that many problems in the brain are found in autistic individuals; problems with neurons (like mirror neurons), oversized areas, disconnections between lobes, and many other irregularities, but it is difficult to pinpoint weather these abnormalities came about because of the autistic disorder or if they are what caused it. Furthermore other symptoms are beginning to be dispelled, like inability to love or lack of emotional connections thanks to cases like Hannah’s. Also symptoms like spinning, head banging, and repetition appear to be more a way of coping then just a physical symptom. A quote used later in the article brings some insight into the reason for these actions “Chandima Rajapatirana, an autistic writer from Potomac, Md., offers this account: ‘Helplessly I sit while Mom calls me to come. I know what I must do, but often I can't get up until she says, 'Stand up,'. [The] knack of knowing where my body is does not come easy for me. Interestingly I do not know if I am sitting or standing. I am not aware of my body unless it is touching something ... Your hand on mine lets me know where my hand is. Jarring my legs by walking tells me I am alive.’”

Further more, other possible causes for autism have been discussed, like high levels of mercury in the body, but no one cause can be singled out. Researchers believe that there is a combination of genetic and environmental factors implicated in the cause of autism. Genetic factors have been long studied and Wallis explains “An identical twin of a child with autism has a 60% to 90% chance of also being affected. And there's little doubt that a vulnerability to ASD runs in some families: the sibling of a child with autism has about a 10% chance of having ASD”. There have been abnormalities found on chromosomes 2, 5, 7, 11 and 17 and as David Amaral, research director of the MIND (Medical Investigation of Neurodevelopmental Disorders) Institute, says “We think there are a number of different autisms, each of which could have a different cause and different genes involved,". Regardless of the causes, over 300,000 school age children suffer from the effects of this disorder all in their own ways. The most upsetting cases are those like Hannah’s. Those who “have a lively intelligence trapped in a body that makes it difficult for others to see that the lights are on.” Or a boy stricken with a very severe case of autism; nable to speak or sustain his attention from one moment to the next, yet this boy is tragically aware of his situation. As Wallis writes “How many other autistic kids, Merzenich wonders, ‘are living in a well where no one can hear them’?” For some like Hannah, who is now preparing for college, life after so many years of silence can become a cacophony of happiness. But still some remain in silence waiting for us to breakthrough that two-way mirror. We have come so far in scientific breakthroughs and perhaps the answers are right around the corner, but for now we will continue doing everything in our power for those suffering from autism.

Works cited:

Wallis, Claudia . “Inside the Autistic Mind”. Time 7 May 2006. 1 Mar. 2007

Thursday, March 1, 2007

Peer review sessions 2/8 and 2/22

Journal 9:

I admit I have been slightly neglecting my blog of lately and (admittedly because the professor said she is checking blogs this weekend) I need to catch up. I am a little unclear on what exactly I am missing from my blog, but upon checking other blogs I have realized that a lot of other people used an explanation of peer review days as an entry and I will be doing the same. It may be a little out of order but better late that never.

Peer review 2/8: Important figures paper

I began on the day we did our first peer review. After giving my papers to Shelly and Ann I stressed to them my extreme misuse of the comma. I have always been comma happy in my writing and recently, due to being screamed at for using to many commas, I have been neglecting comma use in my papers. I reread the chapter on commas and even though I enjoy the comical styling of our Grammar and Style book, but it was not of the utmost help. It could just be that I am comma stupid and incapable of grasping the enigma that is the comma. Anyways, after a long silence during which much reading occurred, Ann was the first to discuss my paper. She started with a compliment saying that I had done a nice job with only some minor mistakes. She pointed out a run-on sentence in my first paragraph, an awkward sentence and an unclear explanations in my second, and some capitalization problems in my third. The main thing she showed me was my works cited page. I had forgotten (because it has been quite a long time since I have written a WC page) to use a hanging indent. Mrs. Mangun (my really cool Senior year English teacher) would be kicking me in the head if she saw my works cited page. It was a mess. Next to review my paper was Shelly. Shelly I could tell was a bit shy when it comes to reviewing other peoples work. She is very nice and I think kind of afraid to offend someone if she points out errors so she only a few things about missing commas and unclear passages to show me but it was still very helpful to me. My session went very well and I appreciated what both the girl had to say about my paper. Next Ann gave us her paper and explained that she had misunderstood the assignment so the paper was not exactly on the right subject but to just go with the flow and so we read her paper. I went first when I was done reading her paper. Other than not being on the right subject it was very well written. He had a nice flow and a good tone in her writing. I pointed out some repetitive words and awkwardly sounding sentences but honestly there was not much there to correct ( I was not just being lazy). Last but not least we read Shelly’s paper. Her topic is the Wright brothers and their role in aviation so it was a pretty interesting paper and enjoyable to read. Ann went first this time and pointed out many of the things I had noticed as well. Some minor punctuation and awkward sentences, but when it was my turn I pointed out her quotes. She had quoted some thing that really didn’t need to be quoted and some stuff that that I though needed to be paraphrased and not quoted. I did my best in the short time we had left in class to explain the rules for quoting and citations and her works cited page. I ended up commenting on her blog with some more helpful information because we did not have much time left in class by the time we got to her paper. Overall, Shelly’s paper was very well written as well. She has a unique writing style and an interesting topic. All together I think the peer review session was helpful to everyone and we used the class time well.

Peer review session 2/22: Important issues paper

This peer review session was a little mixed up due to the fact that we only had 5 people at the beginning of class, so we all traded papers as one big group. No one really said anything about their papers before we began reading so I kind of said to anyone listening my spiel about my paper. I had been rushed that week to finish my paper and barley got 2 ½ pages done for the peer review. I explained that the paper was not completely coherent because I jot down ideas and write as ideas come to me and then go back and add and fix stuff later and I had not had enough time to completely add and fix things. I had 3 papers to read and everyone else had 3 or 4 each so we took a lot of time reading (nearly ¾ the class time) and slowly we all started handing back papers and chattering quietly. Mostly we all just commented on the sides of the paper and Ms. Hanes lectured us on citations and using Wikipedia as a source so we really did not have time to talk to each other about our comments, but I talked to Shelly and Casey about their papers before I left. I got a lot of good comments on my papers even tough we didn’t all talk. I think this class session went well also.