PLT Test Blog

I could have given this post and the above graphic a fancy name like "Psycho-neurobiological model of autism", but True Self seems more appropriate. If you have ever read a book on autism by a psychologist, it is worlds away from the books by the scientific boffins.  In reality, the psychologists have a simpler job, since they do not have to prove their theories with biological data. One interesting observation from psychology is the concept that the human body has two parallel control mechanisms, the nervous system and the hormone system.  The nervous system mediates immediate changes, while the hormonal system sets the background changes. When it comes to fear and stress, there are measurable hormonal changes.  Using willpower or even singing, you can make your self feel better and make a measurable change in the hormone levels.  We saw this earlier with the example of singing lowering the stress hormone cortisol, as measured in saliva. This NIKE (Just do it!) effe...

Source: Peter Research                      Notes   Oxidative stress increases neuro-inflammation Neuro-inflammation increases oxidative stress Both oxidative stress and neuro-inflammation contribute to central hormonal dysfunction, e.g. stress reducing D2 levels that stop T4 converting to T3 in the brain One year after starting my investigation, I thought it would be useful to sum up Classic Autism in a simple form.  I chose a Venn diagram.  At school your kids probably have just  two overlapping circles.  If you have four variables you need to use ellipses.  Where all four variables are in play, is the area where all four ellipses overlap.  This is untreated classic autism.   Once you successfully treat any of the four trouble areas (Neuro-inflammation, oxidative stress, channelopathies and hormonal dysfunction in the brain) you can modi...

Most kids love pizza; Monty is no exception and today he gets his own, by special deliver y. The first slice is that rather dull triad of impairments, which is taught to therapists learning about autism.  Autism is supposed to be the place where these three impairments overlap.  I was always rather underwhelmed by this; definitely a slice needing extra ketchup.  So based on what I have learned myself, and read in the literature I propose a more colourful pizza, which of course gets a fancy name. In the literature, whether or not there was a regression after birth, seems to be relevant in understanding the cause of autism, in that particular case.  It would also therefore be a factor indicating the appropriate therapy. You may be surprised to see "depression", but it is there because there are many biological markers in autism that are also present in people with depression (and other mental health disorders).  These will be dis...

In the research there are various scales to measure how autistic a child is, for example the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS).  They are very subjective, but clearly better than nothing at all. I read a study on older children with ASD that was highlighting that as the children get older, they become less autistic.  In the CARS scale there are 14 behavioural areas to grade and then there is number 15, which is the general impression of the clinician.  In effect, number 15 is how autistic the clinicians feel the subject to be;  you would expect that number 15 would be consistant with the findings in the first 14 areas.  In the test the older children all showed a big improvement in areas 1 to 14, but not in number 15, which is the one that really matters.  This really means that either the use of CARS was inappropriate or CARS is flawed. As children get older the concept of "normal" changes.  So there is not m...

Today's post is about a new framework to help us all understand what is going on in the world of autism.  If you read a lot, you will have heard of Mindblindness and Mindreading .  It is an interesting idea developed by Borat's big brother, Simon Baron-Cohen. You may recall that Monty's afternoon therapist and pal is called Dule ("Doolay"); well Dule and I agreed a long time ago that at least half of the problem lies not in the mind of the autistic child, but rather in the mind of the "normal" adults. Simon's brother Sacha (Borat) would probably find this amusing, but it is actually true. The Autism Framework of Restricted Vision shows how the adults cannot  see over the long red secret wall.  All they can see is their family doctor, and if they live in the US, their DAN doctor; not to mention quackery found on the internet. Here is what the other characters can see:- Family doctor can see the NICE guidelines DAN Doctor can see the quackery and if...