Possible cause for autism found - children with autism have extra brain synapses - Polidicks

[quote]a brain region that should be talking only to a select number of other regions is receiving irrelevant information from many others[/quote] this sounds sort of like synesthesia (in a psychedelic drug sense)

[QUOTE=MendozaMan;45862661]You don't "lose" autism. You have it and will have the effects for the rest of your life.[/QUOTE] And actually as long as a person with autism works hard to diminish their effects and symptoms to social guidelines, it's just going to be less noticeable the effect of autism, but it's still there.

[QUOTE=Antlerp;45862730]I for one would like to see thousands of autists high as fuck[/QUOTE] Oh god I have never experienced a high autist, I smoked with a guy with ADHD once though, that was fun.

My god. I would love for this to become a real treatment. I already myself have been having the trouble of losing my vocabulary of words and not being able to think or speak properly. I fear that it is only going to get worse for me even though I worked so hard to fight my habits and that shit Autism has brought me.

Imagine if they could give this drug to children or adults with severe autism and they be cured. Of course they'd still have to do a lot of catching up in the mean time but think of it... I'm trying to imagine my brother without autism. It is literally making me cry because on one hand I love him the way he is and can't think of him any other way but on the other hand if he had a shot of being able to function normally like me and my other brother without my parents having to take care of him the rest of their lives... well it makes me cry too.

So what does this mean exactly? I am having trouble understanding it, and I want to know what this means for me as I have Autism, I want to know if I am a strain on society or not.

i just realised how many autistics reside in facepunch. it just explained everything. then again this is the internet home for run-away misfits, psychos, autistics and other unfortunates.

[QUOTE=Xonax;45868260]So what does this mean exactly? I am having trouble understanding it, and I want to know what this means for me as I have Autism, I want to know if I am a strain on society or not.[/QUOTE] They can basically make it so you don't have autism. Of course yeeeeeears of adjusting a certain way would be there but think of all the things that make you different from another person... that would be gone and you'd have an easier time with things you find difficult whereas most people find easy. If that makes sense... it's hard to generalize a spectrum disorder. [editline]2nd September 2014[/editline] For example, my brother gets overstimulated very easily. I imagine the over stimulation would immediately be less and he wouldn't freak out. I could finally sneeze or cough or slam a door without causing him apparent pain.

[QUOTE=SexualShark;45868292]i just realised how many autistics reside in facepunch. it just explained everything.[/QUOTE] m'lady

[QUOTE=5/3/4/3;45868344]m'lady[/QUOTE] [img]http://0.s3.envato.com/files/44986741/Cute%20Middle%20Aged%20Woman%20Tips%20Hat.jpg[/img]

I'm somewhat terrified at the thought of taking something that wouldn't make me autistic anymore. This condition has had such an impact on my development and who I am that I'm afraid of losing some part of me that makes me unique.

[QUOTE=SexualShark;45868361][img]http://0.s3.envato.com/files/44986741/Cute%20Middle%20Aged%20Woman%20Tips%20Hat.jpg[/img][/QUOTE] At first glance I thought that was a picture of Jimquisition / Jim Sterling. At second glance, the likeness still hasn't dissipated to me.

[QUOTE=Lord Xenoyia;45862208]That's offensive in more ways than one[/QUOTE] I'm autistic and I find it hilarious. I find autism jokes funny, the only ones that really hurt me is when you do something stupid and people say shit like "Do you have autism or something", that's the shit that really hurts.

[quote]Children with autism have extra synapses in their brain due to a slowdown in the normal brain "pruning" process during development, say US neuroscientists.[/quote] [img]http://i.imgur.com/n6yzuTt.png[/img]

[QUOTE=Levithan;45868449]I'm somewhat terrified at the thought of taking something that wouldn't make me autistic anymore. This condition has had such an impact on my development and who I am that I'm afraid of losing some part of me that makes me unique.[/QUOTE] Well, if it's that important to you as a person and has no/personally-neglible negative effects on you/others, nothing says you'd be forced to go get it cured. I suppose having highly-functional autism with a cure readily-available would be kind of like being born with a tail-stub that surgery can remove. Sure, it technically qualifies as a deformity, but it's also harmless in the grand scheme of things, so whether it's important enough to leave or horrible enough to want gone is all up to you and only you. If they do find out how to cure autism in children and adults who've had the condition for all their lives, no one can force you to go get cured. Same thing with any diseases that don't actively cause you/your body to harm others and bring the cops down on your head, you either get treatment of your own free will or live with it. You'd especially have plenty of time and freedom to decide here in the U.S., where anything more than a band-aid and a lollipop is priced in thousands of dollars, minimum. So, if curing autism becomes a legitimate, proven-effective medical practice, then it's entirely your choice whether or not to get it removed.

[QUOTE=Levithan;45868449]I'm somewhat terrified at the thought of taking something that wouldn't make me autistic anymore. This condition has had such an impact on my development and who I am that I'm afraid of losing some part of me that makes me unique.[/QUOTE] I hope you don't take this offensively, but you literally may be too autistic to understand how life without autism is like.

[QUOTE=SexualShark;45868292]i just realised how many autistics reside in facepunch. it just explained everything. then again this is the internet home for run-away misfits, psychos, autistics and other unfortunates.[/QUOTE] Except you of course. And me.

[QUOTE=Levithan;45868449]I'm somewhat terrified at the thought of taking something that wouldn't make me autistic anymore. This condition has had such an impact on my development and who I am that I'm afraid of losing some part of me that makes me unique.[/QUOTE] I don't think I respond about what life is like without autism because I don't have it and can't articulate how you feel, so instead I'll go with something we probably both don't have - hearing disabilities. Bear with me on this one. There is a huge deaf community, much like there is a huge autism community. There are jokes, sayings, phrases in sign language that people in the deaf community just [I]get[/I] because it's something that has been apart of their lives ever since they remember. People without these disabilities just don't get them, and that is what makes the former feel unique. In terms of these communities, the largest single difference is that there is a cure for most hearing disabilities in the form of the hearing aid/cochlear implant. Now, can you imagine life without hearing? If you had the choice to either stay deaf, or hear, would you choose the latter option? If so, was it because you know what it's like to hear? Now, you'd probably assume most people in the deaf community want these hearing aids, but surprisingly, this is not true. In fact, there exists a sort-of 'elitism' within the deaf community, in that, since deafness is viewed as a different human experience rather than a disability (in the deaf community, that is), getting a cochlear implant is seen as a negative rather than a positive. Why get something that no longer makes you unique and special? But, as you can see, these people don't know the night-and-day difference there is from such a change. And you probably realise that you don't need a hearing disability to be unique - you have the rest of you to be unique. So, in my view, it's the same thing - you don't need to have some variant of autism to be unique. As well as this, you wouldn't really be stepping away from any culture at all - the deaf culture is set up so that people who meet that are deaf attempt to find a common ground, since there are so little of them. Chances are you've done the same - if you no longer become autistic, you would probably still have common ground with people who you've met that were autistic, and you'd definitely still have the common ground that [I]you understand what it's like to have austism.[/I] Like I said, I can't tell you what it's like to not have autism. And there's a large chance that this medicine will not work, since many trials like this never make it past stage 2 (testing for toxicity in humans), let alone stage 3 (long-term testing in humans). But if this passes both stages, and becomes readily available, I encourage you to take it. If I haven't convinced you yet, just realise this: If you took this medicine, you would be incredibly unique because you'd be one of the few people that realise how different it is to have autism and to not.

Stop treating autism like it's a disease that "needs to be cured".

[QUOTE=Kardia;45860928]Interesting how partial destruction of brain cells can potentially stop autistic behaviour. I know it is healthier to deal with the problem specifically. As in just target the synaptic issue. But I do wonder if autism could be mitigated by brain cell destroyers... such as sleeping less, drinking less, staying away from "brain food" like Vit B12, taking antipsychotics, valium, tobacco products.[/QUOTE] It's not the brain cells themselves, it's the connections between them (Assuming the research is on the right track) Think of cross talk in a computer network, it's not the nodes that are flawed, it's the connections between them.

[QUOTE=ZombieDawgs;45869772]Stop treating autism like it's a disease that "needs to be cured".[/QUOTE] why

[QUOTE=Kardia;45860928]Interesting how partial destruction of brain cells can potentially stop autistic behaviour. I know it is healthier to deal with the problem specifically. As in just target the synaptic issue. But I do wonder if autism could be mitigated by brain cell destroyers... such as sleeping less, drinking less, staying away from "brain food" like Vit B12, taking antipsychotics, valium, tobacco products.[/QUOTE] We can have autistic people sit down and listen to anti-vaxx people talk for an hour as a treatment.

[QUOTE=Zonesylvania;45860464]I wonder what the excuse of the anti-vaxxer crowd will be after this one. "Vaccines cause Ebola", perhaps. Thanks for the article - the level of research is a fair bit over my head, and I'll need to do some boning up, but it'll make for an interesting read.[/QUOTE] It will get to a point where they'll just go "Look, thing is, that shit hurts like hell alright? I don't like needles, so buzz off! :("

[QUOTE=ZombieDawgs;45869772]Stop treating autism like it's a disease that "needs to be cured".[/QUOTE] youd rather something that causes major suffering and hardship among people who have it not get cured?

[QUOTE=ZombieDawgs;45869772]Stop treating autism like it's a disease that "needs to be cured".[/QUOTE] But doesn't it? It has a negative impact and makes some parts of life harder to deal with. People with severe autism can even need caretakers..

Perhaps this may explain why some autistic people are out-of-the-box thinkers. Able to take in ideas that necessarily would be 'forced' into thought come naturally just from their stream of consciousness.

[QUOTE=TheDecryptor;45870075]It's not the brain cells themselves, it's the connections between them (Assuming the research is on the right track) Think of cross talk in a computer network, it's not the nodes that are flawed, it's the connections between them.[/QUOTE] That's why I said "I know it is healthier to deal with the problem specifically. As in just target the synaptic issue." My solution is based on two layman ideas. One is that since autistic brain cells have many more synapses than is necessary, we could just kill a moderate (I stress moderate) amount of brain cells to compensate for their individual, over communication. The other part of my idea is that certain neuro toxins don't actually destroy brain cells. They just cause them to dysfunction. What if smoking tobacco caused brain cells to produce less synapses? Which in itself is bad for normal people, but good for autistic people.

[QUOTE=Levithan;45868449]I'm somewhat terrified at the thought of taking something that wouldn't make me autistic anymore. This condition has had such an impact on my development and who I am that I'm afraid of losing some part of me that makes me unique.[/QUOTE] Depends, has it hindered your development? Has it had any sort of negative effect? There's a guy in my class with a mild case of Down Syndrome, you can see it in him, the way he talks, the way he reacts, the way he walks, everything. He's not an idiot, he understands everything. He told me that if he got the chance to be "normal", he'd do it in a flash. It really depends though. Are you willing to give up something for the sake and hope for a better end?

[QUOTE=ZombieDawgs;45869772]Stop treating autism like it's a disease that "needs to be cured".[/QUOTE] Don't really know about the definition of disease anymore, but it appears it's more-or-less of a slight abnormality during the brain development. As for whether we need to cure them or not, that's actually good question. We could try to prevent them, and/or to minimize them. But even then we kinda do need to cure ill people, or to even take care of people for their entire lives. What else do you suggest? It's just a matter of can we afford it, and considering how much money people spend on "useless" junk&luxuries&god knows what in the world, then yeah we definitely could.

[QUOTE=Helix Snake;45862798]Does this apply to high functioning autism as well? Because some "savant" behavior might be caused by the same thing, and might be destroyed by the treatment.[/QUOTE] I hope it works for high functioning autism too. I have no "savant" abilities so getting treatment wouldn't have to feel like a trade. [QUOTE=PirateMax;45868489]I'm autistic and I find it hilarious. I find autism jokes funny, the only ones that really hurt me is when you do something stupid and people say shit like "Do you have autism or something", that's the shit that really hurts.[/QUOTE] If anyone says something like that to me I'd just say "yes I do" and see their reaction.