[Wild Fragaria]

Now I feel better about daydreaming


Nature News  Published online: 8 May 2006; | doi:10.1038/news060508-3


Autistic patients may lack the ability to daydream normally, say researchers who have found that these people's brains act differently when they are taking a break.

Neuroscientists know that a certain network of brain regions fires up when our minds wander, and that this is important for pondering and reminiscing about ourselves, others and our emotions. Other studies have hinted that autistic patients, who have learning and social problems, might have abnormalities in this region but the details have been unclear.

To pin down whether autism is related to these brain changes, Daniel Kennedy of the University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, and his colleagues studied 15 adults with some form of autism and 14 healthy controls. The team used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to scan the 'daydreaming' regions, which lie in the middle of the brain.

In healthy people, these spots become active when the brain is resting — and dampen down when the brain is working hard at a mental puzzle, the researchers confirmed. They also showed that part of the network revs up when participants read emotional words, such as 'murder' or 'blood', compared with bland ones such as 'table'.

But the brains of autistic patients revealed a different picture. Their daydreaming network seemed permanently dampened; it did not show increased activity during rest and was not roused by emotional words.

The team showed that those patients with a more abnormal pattern of activity in these regions tended to have greater social difficulties in real life. "This critically important area is not functioning the way it should," Kennedy says.

The study suggests that this paralysed network could prevent a patient's brain from conjuring a normal internal picture of themselves and others, Kennedy says, and so interfere with social behaviour.

Alternatively, it may be the social problems that are somehow altering the brain network. One way to investigate this would be to look at the brains of young children before the first signs of autism arise, to see if the same regions are dampened.

Researchers have already found problems in this same resting network in patients with Alzheimer's disease, suggesting that this region may be particularly susceptible to disruption.

Autism is thought to be one of a spectrum of disorders in which people suffer varying degrees of difficulties in communication, social interactions, and in showing repetitive behaviour. The condition is estimated to affect between two and six children in every 1,000.

Quite what causes the disorders remains a topic of hot debate. Researchers know that the condition tends to run in families, which suggests that genes are involved. One recent discovery is that autistic children have brains that are larger and grow faster than those of other kids, perhaps setting up problems later on in life.

[aldo_14]

Presumably this makes me inverse aut....sorry, where was I?  Tuned out for a sec.......

[IceFire]

Presumably this makes me inverse aut....sorry, where was I?  Tuned out for a sec.......

I was just going to say the same thing

So autistic kids are like the opposite of ADD kids.  I can't focus long enough without my mind wandering all over the bloody place. So what I have is a hyperactive day dreaming region and they have a under motivated one. See we should just trade and everyone would be normal.  Actually thats not true...I don't think ADD is abnormal.  ADHD is abnormal but ADD is fairly normal (probably 1/3rd of the population has it, recognized or not).  Autism I think is a little less than normal because its most an impairment without too many advantages.  Although autistic kids tend to be really smart and very focused at doing one particular thing.  Personally I think we should try and harness that ability and treat it as a gift whenever possible.  I realize thats pie in the sky...

[Kosh]

Personally I think we should try and harness that ability and treat it as a gift whenever possible.

You are right, but I do not think they will. America is obsessed with diversity, but only with diversity of appearence. For example: There are no scholarships for Autistic people. Not a single ****ing one. Yet there are numerous scholarships for people of different ethnicities (despite the fact that their way of thinking is absolutly no different from other mundanes). Has being autistic ever helped me get a job? No. One place who was helping me get a job at one point (in the US) told me not to tell anyone about it. When I went to university, they said the same thing: Don't tell anyone about it. The university I went to offered a "diversity scholarship", but did they offer one to me, for having something that only .6% of the population has? Nope. Why? Because they couldn't take a picture of it and tell everyone "Hey look, we're diverse". I laugh at American "diversity", because it is a joke. They don't understand what real diversity is.

[IceFire]

Kosh...it took them a really long long time to recognize that some people with ADD cannot concentrate at all (I'm not one of those) and they finally offer some private study areas to take tests and exams in but it took a very long time.  It is as you say, not something  of appearance, so its far less recognized.  People often point fingers and just wonder why someone can't settle down and study...thing is they aren't wired for it.

The US is the last place I go looking for diversity these days.  Canada has the diversity thing going, but its not perfect or even good, its just better than most other places.  We generally don't have open conflict...but we do have marginalization but not a melting pot either.  We almost bend over backwards in some respects to ensure that everyone can be part of their own little sub-culture. Some never leave their sub culture and become Canadian...although their kids usually do.  There is more mixing here than anywhere else probably but recognizing things like autism we're probably no better at than our American cousins.

Regardless of assistance required or not...you have to fight yourself to achieve your goals no matter how normal or different you may be.  I have what I would consider a mild dose of ADD...I have some trouble focusing and this never really was something I recognized till I got to the end of high school or university.  I was around some other people like myself and things started to become far more clear.  I learned coping strategies and I read about what it meant to have a shorter attention span and what I could do to fight back.  Everything from diet, to study strategies, to mentally preparing for tests and work and that sort of thing.  It works.  I have a university degree with top honours to prove it.

[dan87uk]

my younger brother has autism. and let me tell you right now, hardly anyone in this country understands anything about it. (i live in the UK.) even his teachers at school dont understand and they just view him as an insobordinate child or a problem child.....if thats diversity, then thats a load of b*ll*x. He's a damn smart kid aswell, far smarter than i was at his age, he's already suppased me in some areas and he's only 11, im now 18. Unfortunatly, they are correct about social problems...because he is about to make the skip from junior to senior school, all the kids are getting to the age where there noticing differences, and there picking on it for him. But again, what does the school do bout it? absolutley nuthin! because his stupid head mistress is ignorant to the fact tht he has autism and cant handle being bullied like a normal kid.

my apologies for language in some areas

[an0n]

How is it even hard to understand?

They basically go from people to computers. Instead of a wide range of diverse neural connections, they get focused pathways. They do **** faster, but only certain **** - and their brains lack the diversity of thought to handle rapidly changing environments.

It's basically the equivelant of being hard-wired to concentrate on (for example) math, only math and never anything but math.

[Grug]

My brother has Asperger's syndrome and the schools did **** all for him too. He left school in grade 10 / 11 and hasn't been back since. He just plays games all day. Has very particular schedule. Etc.

It's about a lack of education to the parents, teachers, and other kids. I can understand how it is difficult to try and cope with everyone, but people need to be able to accept or learn to try and accept how to tolerate and cope with diversity not only in the colour of someone's skin or cultural background, but mental conditions as well. Everyone is different. It is only human to jump straight to certain conclusions or habits but there is surely something more governments and schools can do to help understand and cope with these things. =/

[Kosh]

My brother has Asperger's syndrome and the schools did **** all for him too. He left school in grade 10 / 11 and hasn't been back since. He just plays games all day. Has very particular schedule. Etc.

How long ago was that? Do you think that he should go back to school, or just play games all of his life? I find it hard to believe that is all he can do.

[Wild Fragaria]

I think each and every one of us has something strange 

[Descenterace]

Nature News  Published online: 8 May 2006; | doi:10.1038/news060508-3
The team showed that those patients with a more abnormal pattern of activity in these regions tended to have greater social difficulties in real life. "This critically important area is not functioning the way it should," Kennedy says.

I disagree. It's functioning fine. It's just not functioning in the same way as in the majority of the population.

People are different, godsdammit...

[aldo_14]

I think each and every one of us has something strange 

Personality quirk strange or extraneous 3rd nipple and webbed feet strange?

[Wild Fragaria]

I think each and every one of us has something strange 

Personality quirk strange or extraneous 3rd nipple and webbed feet strange?

Would you share with everyone in public if you have a third or fourth nipple?   

Nature News  Published online: 8 May 2006; | doi:10.1038/news060508-3
The team showed that those patients with a more abnormal pattern of activity in these regions tended to have greater social difficulties in real life. "This critically important area is not functioning the way it should," Kennedy says.

I disagree. It's functioning fine. It's just not functioning in the same way as in the majority of the population.

People are different, godsdammit...

All it says is the way thing normally works.  I agree that certain things can not be standardized, like an exam you take for a course at college for example.  It's true that if you get a B rather than an A might not make you look as good of a student but it doesn't mean you're more stupid than "A" students. 

[aldo_14]

Would you share with everyone in public if you have a third or fourth nipple?   

It's not warm enough for that at this time of year.

All it says was the way it works normally.  I agree that certain things can not be standardized, like an exam you take for a course at college for example.  It's true that if you get a B rather than an A might not make you look as good of a student but it doesn't mean you're more stupid than "A" students.

(this is really more in response to Descenterace than you, WF )

Albeit it's always worth remembering there is still a basic archetype for human physiology and psychology.

The problem is, I think, how people react to abnormality and in particular where they treat it as uniformly negative.  Autism is a bad thing in the context of normal human interaction and social behaviour/experiences, but even in that context it still doesn't stop people being human. We can say autism is a negative thing in the scope of the world-at-large, and i think that's fair.  But saying people are inferior, any less human, or any less capable of being happy by a physical characteristic (i.e. brain differences) is IMO unfair, and it's the tendency for some people to do exactly that which makes people offended by the concept of defining 'normality' for a person.

If we don't work on a concept of basic, biologicall normality, though, we almost veer into the territory where certain problems or illnesses can become easier to dismiss as 'just different' rather than to examine and treat.  I don't think it's encouraging, to coin a messy phrase, conformity if we treat autism or dyslexia, because the benefit of treatment I think can be proven by examining humanity in general and how these things (not illness...um, I forget the exact term; syndrome?) impact upon the persons ability to function in that world.

[karajorma]

Basically we're social animals and if you have a brain difference that makes you less able to interact with social animals it is going to put you at a disadvantage.

[aldo_14]

Basically we're social animals and if you have a brain difference that makes you less able to interact with social animals it is going to put you at a disadvantage.

Bugger.

Did you really have to sum up my ramblings in one concise and to the point sentence?  Now I look verbose.

[karajorma]

Well I had meant to post that earlier but never got around to it, so yes

[Wild Fragaria]

The summary is good, but I still like reading the ramblings