


Archive for February, 2011

Article Date: 03 Feb 2011 – 3:00 PST
In a major advance for schizophrenia research, an international team of scientists, led by Jonathan Sebat, PhD, assistant professor of psychiatry and cellular and molecular medicine at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, has identified a gene mutation strongly linked to the brain disorder – and a signaling pathway that may be treatable with existing compounds.
The work poses significant and immediate implications for neurobiology and the treatment of schizophrenia because the gene identified by the researchers is an especially attractive target for drug development.
“In some ways, this is the kind of gene that the pharmaceutical industry has been waiting for,” said Sebat, who is also chief of the Beyster Center for Molecular Genomics of Neuropsychiatric Diseases and a member of the Institute for Genomic Medicine, both at UC San Diego. “Its activity can be modulated by synthetic peptides; and some have already been created.”
The findings are published in the Feb. 3, 2011 online issue of the journal Nature.
Schizophrenia is a chronic, severe and disabling brain disorder, with symptoms that include hallucinations, delusions and thought disorders. It is believed to be caused by environmental and genetic factors, most notably the latter: the illness occurs in 1 percent of the general population, or 10 percent of people who have a first-degree relative with the disorder, such as a parent or sibling.
In previous work, Sebat and collaborator Mary-Claire King, a professor of medical genetics at the University of Washington, discovered that rare mutations at many locations in the human genome resulted in significantly higher risk of schizophrenia. These mutations consisted of copy number variants or CNVs – a type of genetic variation in which the number of copies of a gene differs between individuals. The findings were the first conclusive evidence that rare mutations can cause schizophrenia, but they did not identify the specific genes involved.
The latest study goes much further. Researchers scanned for CNVs in the genomes of 8,290 individuals with diagnosed cases of schizophrenia and 7,431 healthy controls. “We found very strong links to multiple sites in the genome,” said Sebat. “Some had been picked up before in earlier studies, but we uncovered a very important new finding: duplications at the tip of chromosome 7q were detected in individuals with schizophrenia at a rate14 times higher than in healthy individuals. These CNVs impact a gene that is important for brain development – the neuropeptide receptor VIPR2.”
Formally known as the Vasoactive Intestinal Peptide Receptor 2, VIPR2 is expressed in the nervous system, including in the brain, blood vessels and gastrointestinal tract. Previous studies have shown that VIPR2 helps to regulate the formation and activity of neurons in the brain. In mice, VIPR2 also has been found to play important roles in behavioral processes, including learning and timing of daily activity.
Read in Full: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/215535.php

Why should I not be using the ‘S’ word? What’s in a name?
The answer is that it has acquired a stigma in the course of a hundred years owing to the small minority of people with our condition who are violent and attack or kill other people.
Furthermore, according to Jim van Os, a professor of psychiatry at Maastricht University in the Netherlands and an invited member of the American Psychiatric Association’s DSM 5 Psychotic Disorders Work Group, the diagnosis may itself be a source of stigma. It is mystifying and confusing: people with schizophrenia do not have a split personality; the condition does not, according to Jim, exist as a distinct illness; it is a ragbag of symptoms such that calling it anything other than a syndrome is totally misleading.
So what name are the Work Group going to recommend to the APA? Probably “psychotic syndrome.†Now we, as consumers — for I am one — do not find that appealing. It is pathological. “I am a psycho†sounds weird.
What are the alternatives? It could be called “the Bleuler syndrome†after the Swiss professor of psychiatry who put forward the word schizophrenia in 1908 to replace the previously stigmatized term dementia praecox, or premature senility.
Another suggestion is made by Anoiksis, the Dutch consumer association of which I am a member: Dysfunctional Perception Syndrome (DPS). But I find the dysfunctional bit negative and tend to shorten it to Perception Syndrome. After all the medical term syndrome already implies an illness or disorder of some kind.
Also, to me, and here I am being disloyal to my own Anoiksis club, the word perception suggests sense data – seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, feeling, … and does not capture the characteristic of a hallucination, let alone a delusion or any of the other, sometimes negative, symptoms.
Read in Full: http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2011/02/02/does-schizophrenia-need-a-new-name/

Tens of millions worldwide endure it. 80% have considered suicide. And the suicide completion rate is double that of major depressive disorder. What emotional/mental health disorder am I talking about? Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD)
Imagine being consumed – beaten down – by the fact that you have some sort of horrible defect in your physical appearance. And you’re sure it’ll have others view you as repulsive.
Of course, the defect(s) is perceived – others don’t notice.
What Is BDD?
Very simply, BDD is a condition characterized by over-the-top preoccupation with an imaginary physical defect. And the preoccupation is of such magnitude that one’s routine life-functioning is turned upside down. BDD typically presents in adolescence and early adulthood. It strikes women and men equally.
Read in Full: http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=41903&cn=46

Scientists look to stem cells to mend broken hearts
Tuesday, February 1 09:01 am
Britain’s leading heart charity launched a 50 million pound ($80 million) research project on Tuesday into the potential of stem cells to regenerate heart tissue and “mend broken hearts”.
Scientists leading the work for the British Heart Foundation (BHF) said they hope that within the next decade they may have experimental drugs in development that would give certain kinds of cells in the heart the ability to regenerate tissue, repair damage and therefore combat heart failure.
The ability of heart tissue to regenerate already occurs in some animals, such as zebrafish, which can regrow portions of their own hearts if they are damaged.
At a briefing in London to launch a “mending broken hearts” fundraising campaign, scientists said research into stem cells and developmental biology may in future make this possible in people too.
“Scientifically, mending human hearts is an achievable goal and we really could make recovering from a heart attack as simple as getting over a broken leg,” said Professor Peter Weissberg, medical director at the BHF.
Scientists in the United States reported last year that they had been able to turn structural heart cells into beating cells by identifying genes that, in a developing embryo, turn an immature cell into a beating heart cell or cardiomyocyte.
One of the British teams, led by Professor Paul Riley of the Institute of Child Health at University College London (UCL) has already found a natural protein, called thymosin beta 4, that plays a role in developing heart tissue.
He said his researchers had already had some success in using this protein to “wake up” cells known as epicardial cells in mice with damaged hearts.
“We hope to find similar molecules or drug-like compounds that might be able to stimulate these cells further,” he told reporters at the briefing.
Another team of researchers at Imperial College London will be looking at a group of rare latent stem cells that can be harvested and then grown in the laboratory.
These cells are highly active in developing hearts and can grow into new functioning tissue, but something in them gets switched off soon after humans are born, meaning that the heart is no longer able to repair any damage, said Professor Michael Schneider, who leads this team.
His researchers will be trying to find ways of re-activating the cells in a controlled and safe way, so that they are able to repair damaged heart tissue but will not grow out of control.
“One strategy would be to give a drug that would activate this kind of process,” he said, adding that this “requires more knowledge about what signals trigger these cells”.
Weissberg said if the research was as successful as they hoped, it could one day reduce or even eliminate the need for heart transplants for patients whose hearts are damaged. (Editing by Steve Addison)
Source: http://uk.news.yahoo.com/22/20110201/tsc-life-us-heart-stemcells-011ccfa.html

Heart attack symptoms in men and women
Symptoms the same for both, study finds
The symptoms of a heart attack is men and women are very similar, a new study has found.
“Both the media and some patient educational materials frequently suggest that women experience symptoms of a heart attack very differently from men,” said Martha Mackay from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, who led the study. “These findings suggest that this is simply not the case.”
In the study, scientists monitored the symptoms of 305 patients undergoing angioplasty – a procedure which involves inserting and inflating a balloon into narrowed arteries to expand them. This briefly causes symptoms in the patient simililar to those experienced during a heart attack.
Researchers found no difference in the symptoms reported by men and women, including rates of chest discomfort and ‘typical’ signs such as arm discomfort, shortness of breath, sweating, nausea, indigestion-like symptoms, and clammy skin.
While both women and men experienced typical or non-typical symptoms, women were, however, more likely to report throat, jaw and neck discomfort than men.
“Clear educational messages need to be crafted to ensure that both women and healthcare professionals realize the classic symptoms are equally common in men and women”, Ms MacKay said.
She added that suspected heart disease patients should be questioned more thoroughly about their symptoms by doctors.
Heart attack warning signs (women and men)
Pain
This includes:
- *Sudden discomfort or pain that does not go away with rest
- *Pain that may be in the chest, neck, jaw, shoulder, arms or back
- *Pain that may feel like burning, squeezing, heaviness, tightness or pressure
- *In women, pain may be more vague
- *Chest pain or discomfort that is brought on with exertion and goes away with rest
Shortness of breath
- *Difficulty breathing
Nausea
- *Indigestion
- *Vomiting
Sweating
- *Cool, clammy skin
Fear
- *Anxiety
- *Denial

Healthy heart quiz
Heart disease kills more people in the UK than any other cause. Take our quiz to find out if you know what puts you at risk of heart disease and heart attacks.
Take the Quiz: http://uk.health.lifestyle.yahoo.net/quiz_run.aspx?q=heart-health-quiz

National Heart Month
National Heart Month is our annual campaign to increase awareness of heart and circulatory disease and to raise funds for our research, prevention and care services.
This year, we launched the BEAT, the first ever national heart health code and lifestyle check:
Be Active
Eat Healthily
Avoid Smoking
Take the lifestyle check
The BEAT encourages people to take steps to improve their own heart health by taking the free online lifestyle check.
During National Heart Month, we also ask people to be a part of Red for Heart and help raise vital funds for our work. You can join National Wear Red Day on Friday 25 February 2011 or choose your own event – anything goes as long as it’s red!
There are lots of other ways individuals and organisations can support National Heart Month, from holding your own event to helping us promote the campaign in your workplace, school, university or wherever you can.
To get involved you can pre-order our free fundraising kit today.
To find out more and get involved, please email red@bhf.org.uk or call 0845 241 0976.
http://www.bhf.org.uk/get-involved/campaigning/national-heart-month.aspx

British Heart Foundation:


By WINNIE HU
Published: January 16, 2011
The governor proposed creating “centers for excellence†in every county, suggesting that such schools could save money for districts and ensure a higher quality of instruction. He told the audience at a town-hall-style meeting in Paramus on Thursday night that “the start-up costs of these programs, if you do it district-by-district, are mind-blowing and the quality is variable.”
Parents and advocates are split over the idea of creating specialized schools for children with autism, reflecting a larger debate nationally over whether those children are best served in separate programs or in general-education classes.
Critics of the idea say that children with disabilities gain valuable academic and social skills from interacting with their peers without disabilities, and also develop closer ties to their communities.
“We’re horrified at this suggestion to have another segregated setting for children with autism in every county in New Jersey,†said Diana Autin, executive co-director of the Statewide Parent Advocacy Network, a nonprofit group that assists families. “It would also send a message to parents that children with autism can’t be included.”
But Linda Meyer, executive director of Autism New Jersey, a nonprofit advocacy and educational group, said Mr. Christie’s proposal for specialized autism schools would provide a much-needed alternative for some families. Many districts, she said, lack the staff, training and resources to educate children with autism.
“What I see is the governor has a vision to expand the continuum of options for our students,†Dr. Meyer said. “There are currently not enough high-quality school options for children with autism. Not every child is being educated in an effective program.”
The number of New Jersey students classified as having autism has grown rapidly, to 13,358 in 2010 from 8,490 in 2006, according to state education statistics.
Read in Full: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/17/nyregion/17njautism.html?_r=2
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Adding More Schools for Autism Just Might Defeat the Purpose
Robin Hausman Morris
It is the quintessential dilemma for parents of autistic children. Public or private. Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey has made an auspicious proposal to create additional schools specifically for children with autism, as reported in the New York Times.
This notion is music to the ears of parents who demand more speech, more occupational, and more behavioral therapies for their children. To be fair, the parents demand services because their children are in dire need of direct instruction and invaluable and intense intervention that is lacking in a typical public school setting. Nevertheless, the nagging question remains; is isolation the answer?
Read in Full: http://www.examiner.com/autism-parenting-in-national/adding-more-schools-for-autism-just-might-defeat-the-purpose
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Tough Teacher Powers Under School Reforms
Thursday, January 27 02:06 pm
The new Education Bill sets out Michael Gove’s plans to drive up standards and behaviour.
Schools will get the final say on expulsions – making it easier to expel pupils who consistently misbehave.
The Education Secretary believes his plans will restore discipline and reduce bureaucracy.
He told Sky News: “It seems to me that the most important thing is to say to the teacher is that you’ve got the authority. I think we all want our teachers to get stuck into not just maintaining order but also to raising standards.”
His proposals will allow teachers to search children for things that can disrupt lessons – like mobile phones and video cameras.
Sky News understands that staff will also be able to delete any files or images that they feel are inappropriate.
The government also wants to protect teachers from false allegations made by pupils, by allowing them to remain anonymous until charged with an offence.
Headteachers will be asked not to suspend staff immediately and police officers encouraged to speed up any subsequent investigation so careers aren’t unnecessarily ruined.
Headteachers will also be able to discipline pupils who misbehave on their way to and from school.
But rules forcing teachers to give parents 24 hours notice of a detention will be scrapped – the thinking is that parents may be inconvenienced, but will also be prompted to ask what more they can do to improve their children’s behaviour in school.
Mr Gove added: “This Government backs teachers. All the evidence from those countries with great education systems tells us that nothing is more important than attracting great people into teaching and supporting them in the classroom.
“Teachers will be free to impose the penalties they need to keep order and free from the red tape which swallows up teaching time, so they can get on with their first duty – raising standards.”
Schools rated ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted will be freed from regular inspections in order to focus on the worst performers.
Ofsted will no longer rate schools on areas like community cohesion – instead focusing on just four core elements – pupil achievement, teaching, leadership and behaviour and safety.
With many of the new free schools being set up by faith groups the Education Secretary also revealed to Sky News a new unit will be set up within his department to prevent segregation in communities and combat extremism.
But the bill also includes an unexpected additional clause to make university students pay higher rates of interest on tuition fee loans.
The Government says this has to be included before the new university funding regime begins in 2012.
The General secretary of the University and College Union, Sally Hunt, has accused the coalition of “sneaking” the rate changes out in the bill.
She said: “The general public can see this for what it is – a stealth tax on learning and achievement – and it doesn’t matter what piece of legislation the Government tries to hide it in.”
The bill is likely to include further measures such as plans to overhaul the teacher training process, sweeping reforms of qualifications and the introduction of a reading test for six-year-olds.
Labour says it gives Mr Gove “50 new powers to meddle in education in your area” with Shadow Secretary Andy Burnham tweeting that it “strips councils of any real power and gives it all to the Secretary of State”.
It is part of the Education Secretary’s wider drive to give power and respect back to teachers while returning to more traditional values but could also leaves pupils and parents with a lot less clout.
Source: http://uk.news.yahoo.com/5/20110127/tuk-tough-teacher-powers-under-school-re-45dbed5.html
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Granville woman pursuing dream of school for autistic youth
Jan 18, 2011
Written by ANNA SUDAR
NEWARK — Barbara Lechner knows the world can be a complicated, overwhelming place for preteens with autism.
Not only do they struggle with sensory issues and anxiety, but many feel isolated and are picked on because of their social skills and communication difficulties.
Lechner, of Granville, is working to give Licking County children with autism a place where they can feel safe to be themselves.
For more than 30 years, Lechner has been the executive director of the Language Experience Center, a preschool for children with autism or communication issues.
She has applied for a $250,000 Pepsi Refresh Grant to expand the center’s mission and open a school for fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders with autism.
“We want to create a learning environment that is conducive with their learning style,” she said.
A speech and language pathologist, Lechner started the Language Experience Center in 1979 at Licking Memorial Hospital with support from the Heath Sertoma. The school moved to St. Edward’s Catholic Church in Granville in 2004.
The program was designed to help young children develop language skills. Teachers work with a small group of 2-year-olds twice a week, Lechner said.
In December 2009, Lechner volunteered to do speech therapy with a 11-year-old boy with autism.
To prepare for the experience, she started reading books on the autism spectrum, taking classes and speaking with parents.
She said she realized preteens who have autism have a difficult time in school.
“They have inner anxiety plus the fact that their sensory input is either muted or highly accentuated,” she said. “They can have extreme loneliness and (face) bullying.”
Lechner began thinking about starting a school for that age group. When several members of the Language Experience Center board helped the Davis-Shai House win a $250,000 Pepsi grant, Lechner saw a way to possibly fund her new project.
Read in Full: http://www.newarkadvocate.com/article/20110118/NEWS01/101180305/1002/Granville-woman-pursuing-dream-school-autistic-youth
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Grant Funding Helps Educators Think Outside the Box
Indian Prairie Special Needs PTA provides $5,000 in grant funding to 11 schools and 18 individuals.


Published: Tuesday, February 01, 2011, 5:00 AM Â Â Â Updated: Wednesday, February 02, 2011, 1:36 AM
It’s been one year since 15-year-old Phoebe Prince committed suicide after what authorities say was the result of persistent bullying by classmates at South Hadley High School.
In the wake of the tragedy, the school vowed to put in place polices to address bullying. The new policies were enacted – a necessary response from the school system that was less than forthcoming in the wake of Prince’s death.
Efforts to repair the school’s image – and more importantly to protect the young people in its charge – are ongoing.
But the school system’s commitment to healing itself suffered another blow recently when a new charge of bullying surfaced at the high school.
Multiple news outlets have reported that advocates for the Payton Spinney – who had been a friend of Prince’s – say the school has been unresponsive to her educational and personal issues.
A lawyer for Spinney said the school has failed to implement a plan that takes into account Spinney’s autism and that it has failed to stop bullying she endures at school.
Just as troubling as the new allegations has been School Superintendent Gus Sayer’s silence on the matter.
Last Friday, Sayer said he will not be issuing a public statement addressing accusations that the School Department did not prevent Spinney from being bullied.
We are very troubled by Sayer’s silence. Parents who have children in the South Hadley schools should also be troubled.
Bullying is an unpleasant topic. But the only way to prevent it is by openly confronting the problem.
Source: http://www.masslive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2011/02/silence_on_bullying_a_troublin.html

Article Date: 28 Jan 2011
The NHS needs to improve how it diagnoses autism in children and teenagers if it is to cope with the increasing demand on services, says new draft guidance out today (Friday 28 January).
At least 1 in 100 children under the age of three years has an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, levels of understanding among healthcare professionals vary greatly across the UK. ASD can be difficult to correctly diagnose as there are lots of possible signs and symptoms, as well as coexisting conditions with similar features, such as intellectual disability, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and obsessive compulsive disorder.
In its draft clinical guideline, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) calls for healthcare professionals in the NHS to work closer together, as well as to improve how they engage with schools, social care, the voluntary sector and other key services which can offer useful insight into this condition. This is to ensure that children and teenagers with possible ASD, as well as their parents or carers, receive the appropriate care and support they need.
Dr Fergus Macbeth, Director of the Centre for Clinical Practice at NICE said: “A correct diagnosis of autism can bring a profound sense of relief to some children and young people from what can be an intense feeling of isolation from the rest of the world. It can also help them and their families or carers to get support from education, health services and voluntary organisations and make contact with others with similar experiences.
“Our draft recommendations outline the best ways that healthcare professionals can recognise the possible signs and symptoms of autism spectrum disorders in children and young people, when they should consider referring them to a specialist team, and how they should then be diagnosed.”
In its draft clinical guideline, NICE advises that:
– A local ASD strategy group should be formed, with representation from child health and mental health services, education, social care, the voluntary sector and parents or carers of children with ASD.
– A multi-professional team should lead the referral and diagnosis of individuals with possible ASD; including a paediatrician, a child and adolescent psychiatrist, a speech and language therapist, a clinical or educational psychologist, and an occupational therapist. The ASD Team should undertake the diagnostic assessments where appropriate and advise healthcare professionals about referrals.
– Every child or young person who is to undergo a diagnostic assessment of ASD should have an appointed case coordinator from the ASD Team who will be their single point of contact and signpost them, and their parents/carers, to appropriate services and support.
– Healthcare professionals should always consider the possibility that the child/young person may have another condition with similar features to ASD. If an alternative diagnosis is suspected, they should undertake the appropriate assessments and referrals.
– Following diagnosis, the ASD Team should create a profile of the child or young person, detailing their strengths, skills, impairments and needs. This will support their education, communication, behavioural, emotional and family needs. With consent from the parent or carer, the profile should also be shared directly with relevant services, e.g. a school visit by a team member.
Dr Macbeth added: “We are inviting anyone who has experience with autism, including healthcare professionals, charities and members of the public, to comment on our draft recommendations via one of our registered stakeholders. In particular, we are very keen to hear from young people or carers of young people to get their thoughts on how our draft recommendations could affect them. This is so that we can ensure the final version of our clinical guideline is of greatest benefit to the NHS and importantly to those who live with this condition.”
The consultation deadline is Friday 25 March 2011. NICE then hopes to publish its final clinical guideline in September 2011. Once published, the recommendations will represent best clinical practice for the NHS.
Read in Full: http://www.medilexicon.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=215087

Have your say on new guidelines to improve NHS services for under-18s with autism
The National Autistic Society (NAS) has today warmly welcomed the publication of a draft guideline from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) on improvements to NHS autism diagnostic services for under-18s in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
These include vital proposals on improving diagnosis and post-diagnostic support, such as appointing a case coordinator for each young person and their family as single point of contact who will signpost them to appropriate services; and creating a profile of each young person who has a diagnosis, outlining their needs.
NAS Chief Executive, Mark Lever, said:
Children with autism are often disadvantaged in accessing services as their condition is not properly recognised. Too often we hear from families who are sent from pillar to post whilst seeking a diagnosis, or who find themselves outlining their experiences over and over again to different professionals. The longer they have to wait, the longer it takes for them to get the right support in place, which can have a negative impact on the whole family and lead to more costly services and support being required later in life.
Once published, I hope that the final clinical guideline will bring about a more consistent approach to referral and diagnosis and recommend comprehensive training for professionals involved. This is something families have long been calling for. We strongly welcome these draft recommendations for NHS healthcare professionals and urge all young people with autism, their parents, and healthcare professionals to make their views heard.
NICE is inviting anyone with experience of autism, including professionals and members of the public, to comment on the guidelines.
Visit the NICE website to have your say before 25 March 2011.

ScienceDaily (Feb. 1, 2011) — A study from MIT neuroscientists reveals that high-functioning autistic adults appear to have trouble using theory of mind to make moral judgments in certain situations.
Specifically, the researchers found that autistic adults were more likely than non-autistic subjects to blame someone for accidentally causing harm to another person. This shows that their judgments rely more on the outcome of the incident than on an understanding of the person’s intentions, says Liane Young, an MIT postdoctoral associate and one of the lead authors of the study, which appears in the Jan. 31 online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
For example, in one scenario, “Janet” and a friend are kayaking in a part of ocean with many jellyfish. The friend asks Janet if she should go for a swim. Janet has just read that the jellyfish in the area are harmless, and tells her friend to go for a swim. The friend is stung by a jellyfish and dies.
In this scenario, the researchers found that people with autism are more likely than non-autistic people to blame Janet for her friend’s death, even though she believed the jellyfish were harmless.
Young notes that such scenarios tend to elicit a broad range of responses even among non-autistic people. “There’s no normative truth as to whether accidents should be forgiven. The pattern with autistic patients is that they are at one end of the spectrum,” she says. Young’s co-lead author on the paper is former MIT postdoctoral associate Joseph Moran, now at Harvard.
Most children develop theory-of-mind ability around age 4 or 5, which can be demonstrated experimentally with “false-belief” tests. In the classic example, a child is shown two dolls, “Sally” and “Anne.” The experimenter puts on a skit in which Sally puts a marble in a basket and then leaves the scene. While Sally is away, Anne moves the marble from the basket to a box. The experimenter asks the child where Sally will look for the marble when she returns. Giving the correct answer — that Sally will look in the basket — requires an understanding that others have beliefs that may differ from our own knowledge of the world, and from reality.
Previous studies have shown that autistic children develop this ability later than non-autistic children, if ever, depending on the severity of the autism, says MIT Professor John Gabrieli, senior author of the study.
“High-functioning” autistic people — for example, those with a milder form of autism such as Asperger’s syndrome, often develop compensatory mechanisms to deal with their difficulties in understanding other people’s thoughts. The details of these mechanisms are unknown, says Young, but they allow autistic people to function in society and to pass simple experimental tests such as determining whether someone has committed a societal “faux pas.”
However, the scenarios used in the new MIT study were constructed in a way that there is no easy way to compensate for impaired theory of mind. The researchers tested 13 autistic adults and 13 non-autistic adults on about 50 scenarios similar to the jellyfish example.
In a 2010 study, Young used the same hypothetical scenarios to test the moral judgments of a group of patients with damage to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPC), a part of the prefrontal cortex (where planning, decision-making and other complex cognitive tasks occur).
Those patients understand other people’s intentions, but they lack the emotional outrage that usually occurs in cases where someone tries (but fails) to harm someone else. For example, they would more easily forgive someone who offers mushrooms he believes to be poisonous to an acquaintance, if the mushrooms turn out to be harmless.
“While autistic individuals are unable to process mental state information and understand that individuals can have innocent intentions, the issue with VMPC patients is that they could understand information but did not respond emotionally to that information,” says Young.
Putting these two pieces together could help neuroscientists come up with a more thorough picture of how the brain constructs morality. Previous studies by MIT assistant professor Rebecca Saxe (also an author of the new PNAS paper) have shown that theory of mind appears to be seated in a brain region called the right temporoparietal junction (TPJ). In ongoing studies, the researchers are studying whether autistic patients have irregular activity in the right TPJ while performing the moral judgment tasks used in the PNAS study.
Funding: Asperger’s Association of New England
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Journal Reference:
- Joseph M. Moran, Liane L. Young, Rebecca Saxe, Su Mei Lee, Daniel O’Young, Penelope L. Mavros, and John D. Gabrieli. Impaired theory of mind for moral judgment in high-functioning autism. PNAS, 31, January, 2011
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/01/110131153257.htm
Related Articles
“Autism’s moral judgment gap explored”:
http://www.courant.com/health/la-heb-autism-judgment-20110131,0,5640744.story
“Autistic adults may not understand others’ intentions”:
http://www.newsday.com/news/health/adults-with-autism-may-not-understand-others-intentions-1.2655492

January 19, 2011 by Holly Frith
The Vines have revealed details of their new album, set for release in April.
The follow-up to 2008’s ‘Melodia’, entitled ‘Future Primitive’, was recorded in Paris with Wolf & Cub producer Chris Colonna, Triple J radio station reports.
The Vines last album ‘Melodia’ was released on their own label Ivy League Records.
Lead single, ‘Gimme Love’, has been made available from the band’s website.
Meanwhile, The Vines were forced to cancel a string of tour dates back in 2008 due to their singer’s ongoing battle with Asperger’s Syndrome.
Source: http://www.gigwise.com/news/60761/The-Vines-Will-Release-New-Album-Future-Primitive-In-April


Posted: Wednesday, January 19, 2011 12:15 am
Here’s what has been learned in the 13 years since then:
- *Most of Dr. Wakefield’s co-researchers withdrew their names from the key findings of the report, and the hospital where the research took place discharged him.
- *Before the research even began, Dr. Wakefield had glaring conflicts of interest that he repeatedly failed to disclose. He was being paid by a lawyer who was planning to sue manufacturers of vaccines.
- *Dr. Wakefield also applied for patents for an alternate vaccine and a diagnostic procedure, both of which could become highly profitable if they could link MMR vaccine to autism and bowel disease. He started planning to set up a private company to handle business generated by his patents.
- *Last February, The Lancet publicly retracted the 1998 report.
- *Most important of all, some two dozen scientific studies since 1998, involving millions of children, have found no link between autism and the MMR vaccine or other vaccines.
Yet Dr. Wakefield and his discredited study continue to fortify a small but potent movement opposed to mandatory vaccinations. Polio, measles, rubella, meningitis, hepatitis A and B, mumps, chicken pox, tetanus, diphtheria, whooping cough, influenza and rotavirus are all serious diseases.
Don’t take our word for it. Ask your doctor.
– St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Source: http://www.mtstandard.com/news/opinion/columnists/article_8286ab18-2356-11e0-b524-001cc4c002e0.html

