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In a response to a recent post I was asked if I thought that a hyperstimulating environment could lead to ASD. I thought this topic deserved more than a simple response. So, here are my thoughts, but I am very open to hearing yours... Read More
fascinating hypothesis
thanks for this. does the autistic child's hyperplastic brain explain why there's a correlation between autism and head size in infants?
Reply to fascinating hypothesis
Possibly. If one has a hyperplastic brain this will lead primarily to more synapses, and thus more connections and a larger overall brain volume. In order to house a bigger brain, you need a bigger head. So, yes. This could explain the larger head size in infants with ASD.
We live in interesting
We live in interesting times.
over- or understimulating?
I've often wondered whether an *understimulating* environment has anything to do with ASD and sensory integration disorders. Compared to 100 years ago, it strikes me that our environment is sensorily impoverished. We live in climate controlled houses that vary only a few degrees in temperature from winter to summer. We wear clothes that are soft and clean. As babies, we often spend hours sitting strapped into a carseat.
We may be overstimulated visually, but it seems to me we are much less stimulated tactilely and kinesthetically compared to the environment of premodern societies.
I do see your point. In
I do see your point. In certain domains we are understimulating our children and in others we are over stimulating. Either way, seems that we need to find a happy medium to give our children some stimulation, but not bombard them with too much all at once.
Heidi B - but OTOH there's a
Heidi B - but OTOH there's a lot more information around, and a lot more people to interact with, and you meet more people that you don't already know.
Due to not knowing really what causes this, my main fear is that it might get worse, and that I should be doing something to stop it. e.g. I started to repeat my own sentences when I was about 30, I didn't do it as a child, it's new. WUWT?
There are certainly a lot of
There are certainly a lot of theories out there, but before we can know what to do to "stop it" we have to figure out what "it" is. I do thank you for broadened my vocabulary of abbreviations!
You are so nice and kind! Is
You are so nice and kind!
Is that a hint for more funding?
LOL! You already know what that one means, right? :-)
Your articles are really helpful, understanding more about how the brain works really makes sense of a lot of symptoms. Even if I don't understand it exactly right, a working model is reassuring.
It does sound plausible that we have reached "information overload" and the more info there is, then more and more people are being pushed over their individual limits for how much information a human brain can process.
Advertisers know that "NEW!" gets our attention, so "NEW!" is everywhere. There's a lot of extrapolations I could make from that, but I'll restrain myself.
Does hyper vigilance figure in here somewhere?
Perhaps this is why we are soothed by the same things that sooth a baby. I wonder if sitting in water, like a full bath or a swimming pool works for the same reason as a weighted blanket? I suppose a flotation tank does the same thing too. An expensive version of a nice lie down in a dark room.
This is reminding me of Jay Goldstein's work on CFS.
You don't have to reply to this, I just wanted to reply to you.
For those who are interested
There is an excellent paper on this entitled "the intense world syndrome" by Markram, Rinaldi, and Markram. It can be found online at:
http://www.frontiersin.org/neuroscience/paper/10.3389/neuro.01/1.1.006.2...
I will also be publishing a review of our plasticity hypothesis soon.
For anyone who is interested
For anyone who is interested but found the original paper too hard there is a magazine write up of what I think is the same research here - http://www.philosophicalturn.net/intro/Consciousness/Autism_Supercharged...
Looking forward to the plasticity hypothesis.
Thank you for posting this
Yes, this is referencing the same research. There is much support for this claim. It will be interesting to see where it goes.
This looks like the same guy
This looks like the same guy who wants to make a synthetic brain?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8164060.stm
This is very neat stuff! At
This is very neat stuff! At the forefront of neuroscience and technology!
overstimulation?
Are you familiar with the research of Harry Harlow? Could his rhesus monkeys possibly be a crude animal model of autism? The monkeys in these experiments were understimulated or had a "wire mother" rather than a "terrycloth mother" This might mean just the opposite of your hypothesis could be true.
overstimulation?
Are you familiar with the research of Harry Harlow? Could his rhesus monkeys possibly be a crude animal model of autism? The monkeys in these experiments were understimulated or had a "wire mother" rather than a "terrycloth mother" This might mean just the opposite of your hypothesis could be true.
overstimulation?
Are you familiar with the research of Harry Harlow? Could his rhesus monkeys possibly be a crude animal model of autism? The monkeys in these experiments were understimulated or had a "wire mother" rather than a "terrycloth mother" This might mean just the opposite of your hypothesis could be true.
Refrigerator Mother? Probably not.
Your reference to the "wire mother" studies makes me think of the old theories of autism which refer to the "refrigerator mother." That the reason why children get autism is that their mothers were not emotionally present or were "cold". The neuroscientific evidence does not support this theory. So, no, I do not believe that the behaviors that the monkeys showed in response to the wire mother can be used as an animal model for the basis of autism. However, I am open to the possibility of the opposite of my hypothesis being true, just do not believe that Harlow's monkeys provide good evidence for this.
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