PLT Test Blog

Today’s post will highlight how, perhaps, in 50 years’ time, autism might be understood by the non-scientist.   Sometimes it helps to oversimplify a complex problem in order not to get lost in all the complexities and see what underlying mechanisms may exist. Homeostasis Homeostasis is a fancy word for balance or equilibrium .  It is the property of a system in which variables are regulated so that internal conditions remain stable and relatively constant. All living organisms depend on maintaining a complex set of interacting metabolic chemical reactions. From the simplest unicellular organisms to the most complex plants and animals, internal processes operate to keep the conditions within tight limits to allow these reactions to proceed. Homeostatic processes act at the level of the cell, the tissue, and the organ, as well as for the organism as a whole. Many diseases involve a disturbance of homeostasis. Autism is clearly a condition of altered homeostasis, but not sever...

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...