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New Trends in Brain and Tissue Banking for Autism Research
Professor Giovanni Morgagni, of the University of Padua published in 1761 a book, “The Seats and Causes of Disease Investigated by Anatomy,” that described nearly 700 autopsies and demonstrated that disease is recorded in the pathology of organs in detectable ways. Dr. Richard Cabot’s review...
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How Science and Evidence Won Out Against Auditory Integration Therapies
There are many ways of learning about our world. One way is through science and the scientific process. There is a growing belief that the methods of science and scientific inquiry are the standards that should be employed when designing and evaluating autism treatments. Ideally, by adhering to...
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Future Directions in Medication Treatments for ASD
There has been enormous growth over the past 10-15 years in research attempting to identify effective medications for children and youth with ASD. A few classes of medications have been shown to be effective for treating specific symptoms associated with autism. There is accumulating data to...
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Inhibition of Eye Blinking Reveals How Toddlers with ASD Attend Differently to What They Watch
One of the central goals in autism research is to better meet the needs and experiences of individual children on the autism spectrum, even and especially children who may not be able to easily communicate those experiences. Researchers hope that doing so will provide an inroad into helping those...
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Excessive Folic Acid Supplementation: A Cause for Autism Spectrum Disorders?
Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are a group of phenotypically heterogeneous neurodevelopmental disabilities characterized by impairments in three core functional domains: reciprocal social interactions, verbal communication and stereotyped, repetitive patterns of behaviors. The ASDs are...
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Boys with Regressive Autism Have Larger Brains than Age-Matched Health Counterparts
In the largest study of brain development in preschoolers with autism to date, a study by UC Davis MIND Institute researchers has found that 3-year-old boys with regressive autism, but not early onset autism, have larger brains than their healthy counterparts. The study is published online today...
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Early Motor Experiences Give Infants a Social Jump Start – Study Indicates Infants at Risk for Autism Could Benefit from Motor Training
In a new study published on September 9, 2011 in the journal Developmental Science (Epub ahead of print), researchers from the Kennedy Krieger Institute and Vanderbilt University found that early motor experiences can shape infants’ preferences for objects and faces. The study findings...
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Risk of Recurrence of Autism in Younger Siblings Higher Than Thought
The risk that an infant with an older sibling with autism also will develop the disorder, previously estimated at between 3 and 10 percent, is substantially higher at approximately 19 percent, a large, international, multi-site study led by researchers at the UC Davis MIND Institute has found....
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While the Science is Still Uncertain, the Need to Plan for Your Child’s Future is a Sure Thing!
When a parent is given a diagnosis for their child of Autism or Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD), they are bombarded with a variety of medical, therapeutic, educational, and holistic treatment methodologies that promise to “cure” Autism. This leaves parents in the position of believing...
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The Importance of Skepticism in Evaluating Claims, Selecting Treatments, and Enhancing Science-Based Treatment for Autism
The ivory-billed woodpecker (Campephilus principalis) was last known to exist in 1944. Unexpectedly, in 2004, it was purportedly seen near Brinkley, Arkansas. This claim resulted in a scientific expedition that produced an inconclusive video that was used to confirm the bird’s reemergence from...
