Throughout her 30-year career, Grandin - one of the most accomplished, well-known adults living with autism - has worked to learn the minds of various animals, including dogs, cats, horses, tigers, pigs and cattle. She has sought to find how emotions govern behaviors in animals.

Over time, she has learned that animals' thought process is more akin to a person with autism.

"The common link is that I'm a very visual thinker," she said. "Like animals don't think in language, neither do I. We're not literal thinkers, our thoughts come in pictures, sounds and touches."

Click on the newslink to read the entire article.

The Inter-Agency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC) has voted to recommend earmarking millions of dollars in research funds from the Combating Autism Act of 2006 to study the possible role of vaccines in the causation of autism.

The panel also proposed spending an additional $75 million to study a wide variety of other environmental factors in autism, possibly including parental age, infections, heavy metals, neurotoxins, occupational exposures and "other biological agents."

The decision, made last month, received little or no attention in the media. The vaccine research provisions are now included in the official IACC Draft Strategic Plan for Autism Spectrum Research.

The IACC has 12 members from various health-related branches of the Federal Government, plus six "Public Members," including representatives from Autism Speaks, the Autism Society of America and the Coalition for Safe Minds, as well as Stephen Shore, an adult on the autism spectrum.

Click on the newslink to read the entire article.

Autism Campaigners in the United States of America and around the world are calling on President Elect Barack Obama to to speak out on Autism Sunday - the International Day of Prayer for Autism and Asperger’s Syndrome which falls on 8th February 2009. President Elect Obama takes over the Office of the President of the United States in January. Autism Sunday would be the first international date in connection with the serious educational health issues concerning autism and Asperger’s Syndrome. Many parents, carers and people with autism are struggling to cope with life. In some countries in Africa and Asia there are hardly any public services.

Click on the newslink to read the full article.

It was Matthew Shumaker's strange obsession with wheels and drains that spurred the first nagging doubts. While other toddlers tumbled down the padded ramps at Gymboree, or giggled under a billowing parachute during the baby games, Matthew toddled away to examine the wheels on a small rolling cart.

Click on the newslink to read the entire article.

Did an angel save girl from dying in hospital?

Disabled teen recovered after glowing image appeared on monitor

A 14-year-old girl with a history of serious health issues lay dying of pneumonia in a hospital room. But as her mother waited for the girl to take her last breath, an image of bright light appeared on a security monitor. Within an hour, the dying girl began a recovery that doctors are at a loss to explain.

But Colleen Banton, the girl's mother, has an explanation. “This was an image of an angel,” she told NBC News in a story reported Tuesday on TODAY. She credited the apparition with saving the life of her daughter Chelsea.

No hope
The incident happened in Charlotte, N.C., in September. Chelsea had been born five weeks prematurely with developmental disabilities and had battled serious health problems all her life. She is particularly susceptible to the types of pneumonia infections that had taken her to death’s door.

Told that there was no hope for Chelsea, Colleen Banton had just instructed doctors to take her daughter off life support and allow nature to take its course when the apparition was seen.

It would be another two months before Chelsea finally left the hospital to return home, where she is about to celebrate her 15th birthday as well as Christmas. Her mother is convinced that Chelsea was saved by divine intervention.

“It’s a blessing,” she told NBC News. “It’s a miracle.”

Banton took a picture of the television monitor on which the image appeared. Some who look at it would describe it as a flare of reflected light. Others — including nurses who were on duty as well as Banton — say the three vertical shafts of light are indisputably an angel.

‘They walk amongst us’
Banton is hardly alone in her belief in angels.

“I think angels really do exist,” the Rev. Suzan Johnson Cook told TODAY’s Ann Curry after watching the report on the Bantons’ experience. “They protect us. They walk amongst us.”

Cook was joined by Rabbi Irwin Kula, who looked at angels as more of a metaphor for the unexplained wonders that life brings.

 “Albert Einstein said there are two ways to look at the world: as if everything is a miracle or nothing is a miracle,” he said.

Angels do not play a large role in the Jewish faith, but they have a prominent place in Christianity, which teaches that an angel told Mary that she was to be the mother of Jesus.

Cook said she believes that angels are messengers from God. “They bring the message of hope,” she told Curry.

According to some polls, 75 percent of all Americans believe in angels. That level of belief varies with geography and political affiliation, with more Republicans than Democrats and more Southerners than Northeasterners believing in the existence of the heavenly messengers.

The high level of belief is unique in the developed world. In Canada, Great Britain and Australia, the same polls say, belief in angels does not exceed 40 percent.

Being open to wonder
Kula said whether you believe in angels or not, there is a deeper message in Banton’s story.

Born prematurely, Chelsea Banton has suffered health problems throughout her life.

“The real question is: Can we be open to wonder?” the rabbi told Curry. “Even at the very last moment, the very darkest moment, can we actually be open to the new possibilities that are always there?”

Angels, Kula said, “can be anything.” In that sense, he said, one could say that someone who just shows up when you most need a hand can be seen as a very real angel.

“You’re having a bad day, and a child comes up to you and smiles and right away you feel better. Is that an angel or is that a child smiling?” Kula said.

Cook had to wipe away a tear of joy after watching Banton’s story. It is particularly appropriate, she said, coming at the Christmas season during a year in which many people are experiencing economic hardship.

“People are looking for a miracle right now,” Cook said.

Some, like Colleen Banton, feel they’ve found one.

Video

Touched by an angel? Dec. 23: NBC’s Ron Mott tells the story of one mother who believes an angel saved her daughter’s life; the Rev. Dr. Suzan Johnson Cook and Rabbi Irwin Kula discuss their thoughts on whether angels exist.

 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/28365352#28365352 Video Link

Hi everyone!  This story has an autism connection in that the youngest sibling has autism.   I happened to turn on the TV this morning and see this heartwarming segment about a mother running out on her five children and the oldest sibling holding the family together.

"The day my mother left was basically a normal day," Alex recalls. "After she packed up all her stuff, she came in the living room and gathered us all around and said, 'You know, I'm going on a trip.' She said goodbye to us." That was seven years ago when Alex was 14, and her mother left her stepfather, and her five brothers and sisters ages four to 11 to fend for themselves. "It was a mass of confusion. It was definitely very hard," Alex says. "I worried that my mother was dead .... I would search the obituaries trying to find anything."

Only Online! Hear more from Alex and get her siblings' thoughtson their courageous sister and their huge surprise from Rachael! Plus, share your reactions and chat with Alex on the message boards!

After a month, Alex realized her mother was permanently gone. "I could never imagine doing what my mother did," she says. "No kid deserves that at all." So Alex stepped up and became a generous parent to four of her siblings. "A typical day for me," the now 21-year-old explains, "is getting up really early, getting the kids up, getting breakfast done, getting them out the door for school, coming home, doing whatever chores, picking them up again, make dinner, get them ready for bed -- we're done for the day and ready for the next day." Though she dropped out of school, her siblings are now A students as Alex devotes herself to their well-being. "I've sold clothes, I've sold jewelry. I sell whatever I have if they need money for something."

Alex continued searching for their real mother and received shocking news during a recent Internet search. "I found that she was re-married, living in the UK," she says. "She had been publishing books, and I read that she wanted to have another baby with her new husband and that was terrible because she has all her babies here." Alex tried to get in touch with her mother by having a British newspaper print her story, but she's received no response. Rachael also invited Alex's mother to tell her side of the story. "Our producers tried diligently to contact your mom and didn't hear back from her," Rachael says. "To be fair, we thought of course we'd love to give her any avenue to respond."

Alex is in much closer contact with her other out-of-town relatives. "All my family's in Pittsburgh, so I talk to them every day. I'm keeping in touch as best I can," Alex says. "They do so much to help me and the kids that I couldn't thank them enough." When Alex says she's saving up to see her family for the first time in 12 years, Rachael has an even better offer. "We wanted you to be able to say hello to them -- it is the holidays and all -- so they're here to say hi to you. Come out fam!" Rach announces as Alex's aunt and two cousins walk over and give her a kiss as Alex sits in disbelief.

As she enjoys the teary reunion, Rachael tops it off by handing Alex five sets of round trip airplane tickets so she and her siblings can visit their family whenever they like. "I don't think she's going to stop crying any time soon!" says Rachael, as she adds on a $5,000 gift card to J.C. Penney's American Living line and a box filled with $25,000 in cash. "Oh my God!" Alex says. "I'm going to have a heart attack!" Rach tries to calm Alex, and says the money comes with one simple request for this 21-year-old who has given everything for her family: "Do something fun for you!" 

ScienceDaily (Dec. 17, 2008) — Rice University researchers have found a potential clue to the roots of epilepsy, autism, schizophrenia and other neurological disorders.

While studying the peripheral nerves of the Drosophila, aka the fruit fly, Rice doctoral student Eric Howlett discovered an unanticipated connection between glutamate – an amino acid and neurotransmitter in much of the food we eat – and phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K), an enzyme that, Howlett found, regulates the activity of neurons.

Howlett and his colleagues, graduate student Curtis Chun-Jen Lin, research technician William Lavery and Michael Stern, a professor of biochemistry and cell biology, discovered that negative feedback mediated by PI3K regulates the excitability of neurons, an issue in a number of ailments that include neurofibromatosis, and that a mutation in a glutamate receptor gene common to both the fruit fly and humans has the ability to disrupt that regulatory mechanism.

Howlett found the Drosophila’s metabotropic glutamate receptor (DmGluRA) gene, when mutated, increased the excitability of the neuron by preventing PI3K from doing its job.

The study is the culmination of four years of work that built upon research by Marie-Laure Parmentier and her team at the University of Montpelier, France, to connect glutamate to regulatory functions in the fruit fly.

“As science often goes, we didn’t set out with this hypothesis,” said Howlett, who began the project on funding obtained by Stern from the Department of Defense to study neurofibromatosis. “This all came about as a control for a completely different experiment, and we said, ‘Wow, this is some interesting stuff.’”

What he saw was that the overexpression of PI3K in motor neurons had a dramatic effect. “I noticed under the scope that these nerves were really big, and electrophysiologically, they were really slow. That wasn’t what I expected, and it set me on a path of trying to find out what was going on.”

Howlett’s breakthrough was identifying the negative feedback loop that acts to maintain neuronal excitability at normal levels. “What we found was that glutamate, which is released due to neuronal activity, feeds back onto metabotropic glutamate receptors on the same neurons that released it in the first place. This leads to the activation of PI3K and ultimately to the dampening of the amount of glutamate that is released.” Without that regulation, he said, things inside the cell can go terribly wrong.

“He put his heart and soul into this,” said Stern of Howlett’s exploration of the neuronal chain. “He was working on PI3K because that has a key role in neurofibromatosis. The Department of Defense is very interested in how PI3K is regulated in the nervous system because of its role in tumor formation.”

Discovering the negative feedback loop that keeps neurons stable was key, said Stern, but not the end of the investigation. “We know that glutamate activates mGluR and PI3K, but we don’t know how,” he said. “There are almost certainly a number of intermediates that remain to be identified, and we have several candidates we’re looking into.

“We’re finding a mechanistic link among these molecules that hadn’t been previously appreciated,” Stern said.

“Obviously the next step would be to test whether these same molecules are playing similar roles in mammalian neurons,” said Howlett, who will leave Rice in the spring to pursue postdoctoral cancer research at Virginia Commonwealth University. A native Houstonian, he earned his bachelor’s in biology at the University of Houston-Clear Lake.

Howlett said mGluRs had already been targeted in possible treatments for schizophrenia, epilepsy and other “excitability” diseases, so it’s not a stretch to think his research could lead to even more strategies in treating neurological ailments.

“Actually, all of the molecules involved in our model have been implicated in one way or another with neurological diseases, but no one has been able to link them together into a coherent explanation of the diseases,” he said. “Our model provides a novel framework that could really go a long way toward doing that.”

Journal reference:

1. Howlett et al. A PI3-Kinase–Mediated Negative Feedback Regulates Neuronal Excitability. PLoS Genetics, 2008; 4 (11): e1000277 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1000277

A new device helps people with Asperger's or autism interpret expressions of emotion

PROVIDENCE - TJ can usually tell when someone is happy. Happiness is easy, but negative emotions are trickier. Sorrow can look like laughter; sadness can pass for fatigue. The expressions that signify guilt and hunger, he said, "are the exact same thing."

TJ Conway, 16, has Asperger's Syndrome, a neurological condition related to autism, which makes it hard for him to interpret facial expressions. Is that smile sarcastic, apologetic, polite, angry, or just happy? TJ is not always sure. It's a disability that can strain his dealings with the world.

Today he is holding a small computer, about the size of a hardcover book, that, like TJ, is trying to solve the complex problems of recognizing facial expressions. Point the device at a person's face - as one would with a camera - and, ideally, it will identify the emotion they are feeling.

Although the computer prototype has many bugs to work out, it represents the next generation of technological assist that, if successful, could help people with Asperger's - including the half dozen or so teens in the Providence classroom with TJ - make sense of the emotional world around them. The device is a product of MIT's Media Lab, where computer scientists are studying ways to help machines think emotionally, like humans.

The prototype is called an iSet, which stands for "interactive social emotional toolkit." It's a tablet with a camera on one side and a screen on the other, like an oversized cellphone. TJ points the device at another teen, and holds it steady until a choppy black-and-white video image appears on the screen, along with such labels as "agreeing," "disagreeing," "concentrating," and "confused."

When the computer thinks it's identified a facial expression, a colored dot appears above the corresponding label. The dot grows larger as the computer becomes more confident it has identified the correct emotion.

The software behind the iSet combines commercially available face-recognition programs with machine-learning algorithms that allows the computer to compare new facial expressions to ones it's already seen, and to calculate probabilities that a certain facial expression might mean a certain thing. It was developed by MIT researcher Rana el Kaliouby.

Some social anomalies were apparent among the teens testing the device. One boy talks in blurted lists of facts. Another over-annunciates his words. Some are uncomfortable with direct eye contact. They call themselves "Aspies." Once a month they meet here, at the Groden Center, a school for children with autism and other disabilities. It's a rare opportunity for them to socialize on their own terms.

"There's a comfort level," said Virginia Law, TJ's mother. "They all know that they each have their own little quirks. Outside their group, it's harder."

"I think my awareness of other people's emotions is slightly less than other people's," said Stephen Shea, 16. "I tend to say the wrong thing more often than other people."

For all of them, the challenge is to consciously recognize cues, like a smile or a raised eyebrow, that most of us recognize by instinct.

Rosalind Picard, a computer scientist at MIT's Media Lab, has been studying those emotional cues since the mid-1990s. At first, Picard said, she was hesitant to tackle such a project in a field in which "feelings" were seen as the opposite of rational, cognitive thought. But research shows that emotions are essential to cognition, she said. Emotions help people to catalog and retrieve memories and to prioritize goals.

Picard wondered: What if computers had access to that power? Even better - what if they could recognize emotions in their human users, and react appropriately?

The idea was a huge technical challenge.

The complexity of problems such as solving moves in games such as chess or Go, Picard said, "are dwarfed by trying to solve all the possible moves in peoples' faces."

People can make around 10,000 different combinations of movements on their faces, she said, and change these in milliseconds.

When a friend suggested she research autism and Asperger's Syndrome, Picard realized that her research might have practical applications people with those conditions.

"We're helping computers be emotionally intelligent," Picard said. "Well, there are people who need that too."

That realization lead to the Media Lab's new Autism Communication and Technology Initiative: a group of researchers working on technology to help people with autism communicate socially.

"We're trying to meet people in the middle ground and build tools and technology for them," Picard said. Her philosophy: "Don't 'fix' them, or rework them into a completely different person, but help them to adapt themselves in any way they choose to adapt."

On a crisp fall day, the boys at the Groden Center are ready to test the initiative's newest prototype.

"You can tell us what you like about it, what you dislike about it, and if you have any ideas about how to improve it we definitely want to hear it," Matthew Goodwin tells them.

Goodwin has worked with Picard since his grad-student days at the University of Rhode Island; he's now director of clinical research at both the Media Lab and the Groden Center.

TJ frowns down at the device in his hand. The camera is picking up Goodwin's bespectacled face. Is Goodwin agreeing? Disagreeing? At that moment, the computer is drawing a blank.

The project has cost about $500,000 to develop so far, Picard said. But the device obviously has a long way to go before it could be practical.

A subject has to stand perfectly still in order for the computer to lock onto their features, and if the camera isn't held steady, the computer can get confused and think the subject is moving around.

"So you see this is not a perfect system," Goodwin says ruefully. "We still have to work some of these bugs out."

At this point in the iSet's evolution, the boys are better at recognizing facial expressions than the computer is. And none of them like the idea of carrying around a bulky tablet that, they say, would only stigmatize them more.

But they do like the idea of a small, discrete version - a pocket translator for emotions. And that is what they hope will evolve from the work-in-progress at hand.

"If it gets past the prototype stage, it would be really useful," TJ said. "To some level, everyone could benefit from it."

His friend Steven agreed, noting. "You could react to things in the moment more, instead of having to realize things retrospectively."

More importantly, he said, a device like the iSet could allow him to navigate other people's emotions without having to change who he is.

"A lot of times, what people do is they try to make the person that's 'different' normal," he said. "Shouldn't we make it so everyone can be understood, and understand things, on their own terms?"

Picard and Goodwin say they hope people with autism and Asperger's will become less like test subjects and more like co-designers.

That way, they and the computers can learn from each other.

"The partnership between a person with autism and a computer," Goodwin said, "is more powerful than either one alone."

Randy is an endearing five year-old boy with an engaging smile. And yet, he has a history of tempestuous behavior that has followed him since infancy. He is bright, articulate, a fast learner - and as unpredictable as a tornado. From the time he cut his first tooth, he began biting - often drawing blood. At one and a half years old, Randy was dismissed from pre-school for aggressive behavior. He consistently scores high marks for academics, but has a string of "needs improvement" comments in all areas of behavior. He is loving, cuddling, wanting to be held one minute; screaming and raging with veins bulging from his neck the next.

Randy's parents are exasperated. They have attended many a parenting class, read a plethora of books, and tried every means of discipline suggested by family, friends, teachers and doctors.

Some say, "Randy is just all boy. He will grow out of it." Others suggest, "Randy has Attention Deficit Disorder. Ask your doctor for Ritalin." A few point their fingers at the parents: "You need to take a firm hand with Randy. A good spanking is what that boy needs."

Many whisper, "Can you believe that boy Randy? I would never allow a child of mine to behave like that."

No one seems willing to consider the idea that Randy may have early-onset Bipolar Disorder. His mother has struggled with depression most of her life. His father has Bipolar Disorder. Randy is a prime candidate for a mood disorder.

A study conducted by Demitri Papolos, MD, and Janice Papolos indicates that over 80% of children who have Bipolar Disorder come from families with a history of mood disorders and/or alcoholism on both sides of the family. And yet, even when a strong family history of this is present, professionals rarely consider early-onset Bipolar Disorder. Many children who actually have Bipolar Disorder have been diagnosed with ADHD. Why? Because the official guidelines for diagnosing Bipolar Disorder found in the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) outline criteria based on classic adult symptoms. When the last edition of the DSM was published, very little was known about how Bipolar Disorder presents itself in children.

A great deal more is now known about Bipolar Disorder in children. Demitri and Janice Papolos have written a well-researched book entitled The Bipolar Child: The Definitive and Reassuring Guide to Childhood's Most Misunderstood Disorder. I was thrilled to review such a wonderful book. We applaud Demitri and Janice for providing this much needed, insightful resource! Below is an excerpt from their work (reprinted with permission), which lists those symptoms common to children who have early-onset Bipolar Disorder.

Very Common

• Separation Anxiety
• Rages & Explosive Temper Tantrums (lasting up to several hours)
• Marked Irritability
• Oppositional Behavior
• Frequent Mood Swings
• Distractibility
• Hyperactivity
• Impulsivity
• Restlessness/ Fidgetiness
• Silliness, Goofiness, Giddiness
• Racing Thoughts
• Aggressive Behavior
• Grandiosity
• Carbohydrate Cravings
• Risk-Taking Behaviors
• Depressed Mood
• Lethargy
• Low Self-Esteem
• Difficulty Getting Up in the Morning
• Social Anxiety
• Oversensitivity to Emotional or Environmental Triggers

Common

• Bed-Wetting (especially in boys)
• Night Terrors
• Rapid or Pressured Speech
• Obsessional Behavior
• Excessive Daydreaming
• Compulsive Behavior
• Motor & Vocal Tics
• Learning Disabilities
• Poor Short-Term Memory
• Lack of Organization
• Fascination with Gore or Morbid Topics
• Hypersexuality
• Manipulative Behavior
• Bossiness
• Lying
• Suicidal Thoughts
• Destruction of Property
• Paranoia
• Hallucinations & Delusions

Less Common

• Migraine Headaches
• Bingeing
• Self-Mutilating Behaviors
• Cruelty to Animals

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Here's an article that features a story about a too-trusting young Aspie woman.  Also featured is the story of a young boy with autism who unexpectedly died from a 75 minute seizure.  It was a tough article to read (emotionally).  I'll just post the link:

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/AutismNews/Story?id=6179240&page=3