PLT Test Blog

    In a recent post I introduced a new term – morphology.  Some scientific jargon serves to make things more confusing for the lay reader, but this really is a useful term to understand autism. Morphology ,  in biology, the study of the size, shape, and structure of animals, plants, and microorganisms and of the relationships of the parts comprising them. Today we are talking about morphology as it relates to the growth of the human body in autism. In earlier posts relating to hormones and growth factors (endocrinology) I made my own observations about Monty, aged 11 with ASD.  I commented how he fell from the 80% percentile in height, aged 2, to the 20 th percentile, where he is now.  I also noted how he went from very muscular to your average “floppy” toddler. I did discuss this with a pediatric endocrinologist and asked what is the point of collecting this height and weight data for children, if nothing is done with it.  I did tell her all about t...

This blog is getting rather more detailed than I had anticipated.   Today’s post is about something very complex, but not fully understood by anyone, so I will be somewhat superficial in my coverage.  Just click on the links to learn more detail. There are two words that may be new to you – Morphology and Dendritic Spines. Morph in Twin Decks Morphology ,  in biology, the study of the size, shape, and structure of animals, plants, and microorganisms and of the relationships of the parts comprising them. For today it is really could be thought of as the variability in size and shape of something. A dendritic spine is a small protrusion from a neuron's dendrite that typically receives input from a single synapse. Dendritic spines serve as a storage site for synaptic strength and help transmit electrical signals to the neuron's cell body. Most spines have a bulbous head (the spine head), and a thin neck that connects the head of the spine to the shaft of the dendrite....