New Approach To Autism

According to Dr. Martha Herbert, assistant professor in neurology at Harvard Medical School, told CBC News that the study opens up a new way of thinking about the disorder.

"Now we're learning that the brain and body can influence each other," she said.

Autistic children are increasingly being seen as "oversensitized," meaning "things may bother them that don't bother other people," she said. "We need to pay attention to this."

Treating a child's health should be the first step in addressing autism, Herbert said, rather than solely focusing on behavioural therapy, currently a mainline approach.

"Behaviour therapy is certainly important. But the child's health controls the bandwidth that the child has for being able to benefit from behavioural therapy. If a child is sick, they won't be able to focus."

Parents should watch their children closely to determine what foods trigger reactions and to consider removing those triggers, she said.

Herbert strongly advocates a balanced diet, consisting of all food groups, not just "bread and cheese."

"If you have foods that child is sensitive to in their immune system, that can set up processes that can impact brain function, and it can do so in a negative way. And if you remove those foods, that negative impact can stop."

Genetic Variation Cues Social Anxiety In Monkeys And Humans

A genetic variation involving the brain chemical serotonin has been found to shape the social behavior of rhesus macaque monkeys, which could provide researchers with a new model for studying autism, social anxiety and schizophrenia. Humans and macaques are the only members of the primate family to have this particular genetic trait.

The authors conducted three experiments with male monkeys that had been genotyped for the S/L or L/L variants to learn how genetic variation might influence their responses to social rewards and punishments. They found that monkeys with one copy of the short gene spent less time gazing at images of the face and eyes of other monkeys, were less likely to engage in risk-taking behavior, and less likely to want to view a picture of a high-status male.

"For both human and non-human primates, faces and eyes are a rich source of social information, and it's well established that both humans and macaques tend to direct visual attention to faces, especially the eye region," Platt said. "Rhesus monkeys live in highly despotic societies, and convey social rank information by making threats and showing dominant and submissive behaviors."

In the eye imaging experiment, the monkeys were observed while being shown images of the faces or scrambled faces of familiar monkeys. In addition to spending less time looking at faces and eyes, the S/L monkeys also had larger pupil diameters when gazing at photos of high-status male macaques, indicating higher arousal.

"Their brains set off alarms," Platt said. "In human studies, people with the short version of the gene often show hyperactive amygdalas, a part of the brain involved in detecting threats in the environment. In autism, too, people often don't look people directly in the eye, which may point to a new avenue of research."

In a second experiment, the S/L monkeys were less willing to take risks after they were primed with the faces of high-status males. They more often chose a "safe" option of a fixed volume of juice, rather than the chance for a greater or lesser amount, the "risky" choice. Previous studies have found that inducing fear in human subjects makes them more risk-averse. "Our findings showed that faces of high-status males cause greater fear in the S/L monkey," Platt said.

The final experiment was a pay-per-view set-up. The monkeys could have a juice reward paired with an image or a juice reward without any image. The images were of high-status male faces, low-status male faces, female genitals or a gray square. The S/L monkeys actually had to be paid juice to view the dominant males, while the L/L monkeys gave up juice for a look at these faces.

"Heightened sensitivity to social threats may prove to be helpful in many ways, because success in a social group depends on seizing opportunities while avoiding any potential harmful, antagonistic interactions," Watson said.

"Altogether, our data show that genetic variation in serotonin function does contribute to social reward and punishment in macaques, and thus shapes social behavior in both humans and rhesus macaques," Watson said. "This study confirms rhesus monkeys can serve as a model of what goes on in our brains, even in the case of social behavior."

Glyconutrients and Autism

Though there has yet to be a cure found for autism, there are studies ongoing in hopes of finding the root of the problem. There are many theories about why this happens to some children, and also why the numbers of those being diagnosed are so high. At the moment they are just theories. One such theory looks utilizing a glyconutrients autism treatment.

There is a body of thought that purports that when a child is not getting enough glyconutrients autism might be one of the possible results.

If you don't know what glyconutrients are, you can think of them as the same things as what others refer to as the sugars in your body.

You get these from foods that you eat. Glyconutrients keep the body moving, and they also aid in keeping the immune system running in tip-top form to protect the body. Because autism is considered to be an autoimmune condition, this leads some to believe that a lack of these glyconutrients might contribute to a child developing autism.

The Hug Machine For Autism

Temple Grandin is an adult with autism who has written two books about her life. In her books, she described her severe anxiety and how her discovery of deep pressure ultimately helped her reduce the anxiety's debilitating effects. During her childhood years, Temple would crave deep pressure and would crawl under sofa cushions or wrap herself in blankets to provide pressure. She said she could not obtain the 'right' amount of pressure from people because they either gave her too much deep pressure or too little. As a teenager, Temple observed cattle being branded in a squeeze chute at a relative's farm and noticed that they immediately calmed down after pressure was administered. Temple reasoned that the deep pressure from the chute led to an overall calming effect and thought it might be able to settle her "over-stimulated nerves," so she invented a device known as the hug machine. A series of clinical trials were conducted at a day school at the Michael Reese Hospital & Medical Center in Chicago to evaluate students' use of the hug machine. Researchers wanted to know if students would actually make use of this equipment on a consistent basis. Students who used the lateral pressure equipment showed a significant improvement in behavior and the ability to perform school-related activities.