PLT Test Blog

I started to write this post a long time ago, when Agnieszka first highlighted an interview with Dr Hagerman from UC Davis.  Hagerman is experimenting in using Metformin to treat Fragile-X. Having again be reminded about Metformin, I realized that I never finished my post on this subject. With some extras about autophagy and a nice graphic courtesy of Ling’s excellent paper, here it is.   Metformin has already been covered in 5 previous posts. https://epiphanyasd.blogspot.com/search/label/metformin One interesting point is that the researchers at UC Davis are using the measurement of IQ as one of the outcome measures in their trial of Metformin.   I have been suggesting the French Bumetanide researchers do this for a long time. It is my opinion that simple medical interventions can have a profound impact on the IQ of some people with severe autism. I mean raising IQ not by 5-10 points as at UC Davis, but by 20-50 points.   IQ can be measured using standardized tools ...

Tracking IQ over a 3-4 year period, in 4 sub-groups of 2-8 year olds Today’s post is about trajectories of intellectual development in autism, which I have to come to believe is the most important aspect of autism and certainly helps you understand where your type of autism fits in. As regular readers may recall average IQ = 100 and the IQ scale fits a bell-curve, so most (68%) people have an IQ within the range 85-115.   2.1% of the general population have an IQ less than 70, which is the cut off for a diagnosis of MR/ID (Intellectual Disability). There are special tests to measure IQ in non-verbal people and IQ testing is matched to your age; so the older a child gets the more there is expected from them in the test. I do wonder how you can fairly test the IQ of a 2 year old with severe autism. So I think some testing in very young children may substantially underestimate IQ.  A study was recently published taking data from the Autism Phenome Project run by UC Davies. What w...

When Monty, now aged 11 with ASD, was diagnosed aged three and a half we were told that he had autism and “this may be indicative of the presence of an associated learning disability, but it is impossible at this stage to give a prognosis as to his future difficulties” and also “he is not yet able to take part in formal assessments of his cognitive ability. When his skills and ability to share interests with adults and to follow direction/instruction develop, it will be possible to formally assess his cognitive skills using standard measures.” Off the record, we were also told that he might develop epilepsy. We never measured his IQ and he has never had a seizure. With hindsight, it is interesting what they said about it being pointless to try and measure his IQ.  Apparently it is not uncommon to do just that. Improving Cognitive Function This post is about cognitive improvement, so do not be put off by the introduction to MR/ID.  Several regular readers who are using some of ...