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AUTISM FIRST STEPS
AUTISM DAILY NEWSLETTER
Thursday January 10, 2002
INDEX:
* LISTENERS REMEMBER
NUANCES OF MUSICAL PERFORMANCE,
RESEARCH SUGGESTS
* ADHD Gene May Have Benefited Early Humans
* Suggestions from the public are being solicited on ways to support
youth
with disabilities that would help them in the
transition to adulthood.
* Special Ed Needs National Overhaul Plan
* With rates rising, researchers race to find the cause of
autism and better
treatment
*
*
*
******************************
LISTENERS
REMEMBER NUANCES OF MUSICAL PERFORMANCE, RESEARCH SUGGESTS
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- When we hear a
piece of music, our memories record not just the melody that makes up its
musical structure. We also remember subtle features like intensity and duration
of individual notes, say researchers at the Ohio
State University. This ability appears as early as 10 months of age,
according to a new study by the researchers. These features are what make two musicians
sound different when they are playing the same music, and make two speakers
sound different when they are saying the same sentence. "The finding showed that listeners were able to remember
specific instances in the performance rather than just the general meaning or
the "gist" of the music,"
Caroline
Palmer, professor of psychology at
Ohio State, found that people remember such instance-specific acoustic
features - known as prosodic cues - when recalling a familiar tune. Prosodic
cues in music enable listeners to identify a favorite performer or a familiar
voice in the same way that characteristics of tone and inflection help
listeners recognize individual speakers. Palmer and her collaborators in the
research - the late Peter W. Jusczyk, a psychology professor at Johns Hopkins University and Melissa K. Jungers,
a graduate student at Ohio State - reported their findings in a recent issue of
the Journal of Memory and
Language.The researchers conducted three experiments to investigate
people's memory for music. In the first experiment, 24 musically trained
subjects and 16 subjects with no musical training were asked to listen to two
short musical sequences played on a computer-monitored acoustic piano. The
music was played over and over again to familiarize the listeners with the
sequences.The researchers then played different performances of the same
musical sequences to listeners. The new performances were exactly the same as
the original sequences in melody and rhythm, but they differed in nuances such
as how loud and long certain tones were. Despite the similarity in musical
structure, the listeners were able to distinguish the changed sequences from
the familiar ones. The subjects who lacked musical training were just as
discerning as those who were musically trained."The finding showed that
listeners were able to remember specific instances in the performance rather
than just the general meaning or the "gist" of the music,"
Palmer said. To find out if the discerning ability of the subjects was due to
their years of exposure to music in everyday life, the researchers repeated the
experiment with 16 10-month-old babies. When the babies recognized a piece of
music, they turned their heads toward the loudspeakers. The babies turned their
heads for longer periods when they heard a performance they had been
familiarized with than when they were exposed to novel performances. The
researchers believe this indicates that they remembered instance-specific
features like the adult subjects."We wondered if listeners are equipped
from birth with the right perceptual and memory abilities to remember
particular musical performances and voices," Palmer said. "The answer
was yes. Ten-month-olds can perceive the different performances and remember
the ones they have heard before."From a third experiment, Palmer and her
colleagues found that prosodic features that do not match or reinforce the
overall musical structure of a composition are the easiest to recognize when
presented in the wrong musical context. "For example, slowing down at the
end of a musical phrase is more appropriate than slowing down in the middle of
a phrase," Palmer said. When prosody does not fit musical structure,
Palmer said, listeners are sensitive to the mismatch between the musical
structure and the prosody. The overall findings of the study show that people
remember music in the same way that they remember speech, in which
characteristics of tone and inflection distinguish any two speakers. The
overlap, Palmer said, could lead to a better understanding of the complexities
of human memory. The research was supported by grants from the National Institute of Mental Health and the
National Institute of Child Health and
Human Development.
http://www.osu.edu/researchnews/archive/musicmem.htm
******************************
ADHD Gene May Have Benefited Early Humans
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A gene variation associated with
attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) first appeared 10,000 to 40,000
years ago, and may have been advantageous to early humans, according to a new
report."Up to half of ADHD individuals have this variant gene," lead
investigator Dr. Robert K. Moyzis of the University of California, Irvine, told
Reuters Health in an interview.ADHD is characterized by impulsiveness,
difficulty with academic and social functioning, and short attention span. It
is commonly treated with the stimulant drug Ritalin.The researchers speculate
that during that period of human evolution, characteristics associated with
ADHD that are considered a hindrance in today's classrooms, such as
novelty-seeking behavior, may have been beneficial to humans.Early humans with
the variant gene may have also been more successful at mating and reproduction,
the authors note, which would explain why the gene variation is so widespread
now.A variation of the gene DRD4, known as 7R, has been linked both to ADHD and
to the "novelty-seeking" personality trait. In their study, published
in the January 8th issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences, the researchers sequenced the DRD4 genes of 600 individuals from
around the world.Fifty-six variations of the gene were identified. After
analyzing the different variants, the investigators concluded that the 7R
variant appeared recently in human evolution and may have provided some
evolutionary advantage."We speculate that the very traits that may be advantageous
for individuals possessing this variant gene may predispose behaviors that are
deemed inappropriate in the typical classroom setting," Moyzis told
Reuters Health."If so, then for some ADHD individuals, alternative methods
of education may be more useful than medication," he added. "This
study also provides a clue to why ADHD is so pervasive and may show us a way to
provide more effective treatments."SOURCE: Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences 2002;99:309-314.
http://www.abcnews.go.com/wire/Living/reuters20020109_329.html
******************************
Suggestions from the public are being solicited
on ways to support youth
with disabilities that would help them in the transition to adulthood.
Under the Ticket to Work program, qualified disability beneficiaries will
be issued tickets they can use to access vocational rehabilitation
services, employment services and other support services from approved
providers. SSA will pay the service providers if the beneficiaries achieve
certain outcomes. SSA is interested in exploring various approaches to
assist youth with disabilities who receive payments from us under one of
the programs we administer. Therefore, SSA is seeking suggestions from the
public to help develop new programs that will assist these beneficiaries
make the transition to independence, further education, and enhance
careers in the workforce and that will complement the Ticket to Work
program.
Comments should be submitted in writing to:
The Office of Employment Support Programs, Social Security Administration,
6401 Security Boulevard, 107 Altmeyer Building, Baltimore, MD 21235-6401;
By E-mail to TTWWIIA@ssa.gov; or
By telefax to (410) 966-1278.
By web site entry to SSA's Public Policy Information Site at:
http://policy.ssa.gov. Click on public comment. Click on open
discussions. The direct link is http://policy.ssa.gov/si/ttwwiia.nsf.
DATE: The comment period ends February 26, 2002.
CONTACT: Christa Bucks Camacho, Social Security Administration, Office of
Employment Support Programs, 6401 Security Boulevard, 107 Altmeyer Building,
Baltimore, MD 21235-6401
Phone: (410) 966-5147 or TTY 1 (800)988-5906; or through E-mail to
christa.bucks@ssa.gov.
******************************
Special Ed Needs National Overhaul Plan
By Chester E. Finn Jr
and Andrew J. Rotherham. Chester E. Finn Jr., an assistant secretary of
education in the Reagan administration, is senior fellow at the Manhattan
Institute and president of the Thomas B. Fordham Found
January 2, 2002
FOR MANY boys and girls, particularly minorities, special education has become
not a road to life but a cul-de-sac where they are stopped before they get the
help they need to do as well as they can. This year, Congress is due for its
five-year review of the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA),
which governs most "special education" in U.S. schools.
Special Ed touches the lives of 12 percent of all U.S. children at a total
annual cost nearing $60 billion. The shortcomings and complexities of this
troubled program make it ripe for reform.
IDEA dates back to 1975, when Washington undertook to ensure that disabled
youngsters received a "free, appropriate public education." Until
then, many school districts had neglected or refused to educate thousands of
children with special needs. Over the past quarter-century, thanks in
considerable part to IDEA, much has changed for the better. But IDEA also has
plenty of problems. To name a few: over-identification of minority students for
special education, double standards for student discipline, red tape for
charter schools, and interference with state and local education reforms. It
exempts millions of children and teachers from academic standards, tests and
accountability. IDEA needs an overhaul.
President George W. Bush recently appointed a commission to recommend reforms.
It's a good step. But change in education is difficult.
Powerful interests browbeat legislators in defense of the status quo and fear
that any reform means a return to the pre-IDEA era. Others view money as the
solution to IDEA's woes, when what's needed is reform. Earlier this year, a
politically diverse group of educators - several of whom were appointed to the
president's new commission - came up with recommendations for reforming IDEA.
We found that minority students, especially, would benefit from greater focus
on prevention of learning disabilities through high-quality early reading
instruction. We found that efforts to ensure compliance with IDEA's myriad
rules and procedures have caused a one-size-fits-all mentality that neglects
student performance.
Schools are so worried about being sued that educators focus on procedures
rather than on student needs.
In reauthorizing IDEA, lawmakers should focus on academic performance rather
than regulatory compliance as a measure of success. The number of special ed
categories should be streamlined. The program should stress prevention of
reading problems and early intervention to help millions of children by
spotting their needs when they are young and then using proven methods to help
them. Instead of requiring uniform compliance, IDEA should stimulate
school-level flexibility and innovation and more parental involvement. The
reformed IDEA must be funded adequately. Congress has never met its fiscal
obligations under IDEA, and this will not be cheap.
Such reforms are bold - and overdue. With a growing awareness that many
education problems, particularly those affecting minority students, are linked
to IDEA, the time may be right to rethink this program.
That would be a good thing for millions of children who deserve better than
they're getting now.
******************************
AUTISM:
MENTAL BLOCKED
With
rates rising, researchers race to find the cause of autism and better treatment
By Scott
LaFee
STAFF WRITER January 9, 2002
A generation ago, the most common
medical advice given to parents of an autistic child was institutionalization.
With no effective treatment or cure, alternatives were few. Those days are
over. After years of being either ignored or misunderstood, autism is at last
giving up its layered, tangled, contradictory secrets. Progress comes not a moment
too soon. Part One: Mental Blocked
Today in Quest As rates of autism rise, research has determined that autistic
brains develop differently from normal brains, but understanding about cause
and treatment remains elusive. Skepticism and even downright hostility cloud
the relationship between scientists and families with autistic children. Part
Two: Facing autism
Saturday in Family First, the hard part is hearing that your child is autistic,
say parents. The second struggle -- an ongoing one -- is getting the help the
child needs. Families talk about the ramifications of the disease of "lost
children."
For reasons not at all clear, the rate of reported cases of
autism is rising. Between the years 1987 and 1998, the latest figures
available, the California Department of Developmental Ser-vices -- a statewide
agency providing services and support to children and adults with developmental
disabilities -- reported a 273 percent increase in diagnosed cases of autism,
one of several diseases in a related spectrum that also includes Asperger's
syndrome and Pervasive Development Disorder. California isn't unique. Studies
in Illinois, Florida, England, Iceland and Japan have all recorded incidence
rates of autism much higher than previously assumed, some worse than here. A
decade ago, it was estimated that one child in 10,000 would become autistic;
now the number has dropped to 1 in 500, and less. Autism activists have a word
for what's happening: epidemic. But is it? Like almost everything else about
autism, indisputable facts about the disease are scarce. At least some of the
increase is likely due to improved techniques for diagnosing the disease and a
greater social willingness to do so. But this fact is undeniably true: Autism
is among the most tragic of neurological diseases. It typically strikes
children between the ages of 18 and 36 months, erasing emergent personalities
and cloaking what's left in an array of bizarre and impenetrable behaviors.
Some autistic persons, for example, cannot wear clothing because it feels as if
it were sewn with glass shards. Others sense light as a constant shriek or
experience touch as color. Some seem to feel nothing at all. The world for them
is muted in cerebral gauze, unnoticed and uninteresting. A child with
"classic autism" may lack the ability to relate to others, including
family members. He may not comprehend the meaning of a smile or that others see
the world differently. A child with autism is trapped in a mental world of his
own making and unmaking. He cannot explain what goes on inside his mind; we can
only guess and gasp. "Not being able to speak was utter frustration,"
recalls Temple Grandin, a 44-year-old autistic woman, author and professor at
Colorado State University. "If adults spoke directly to me, I could understand
everything they said, but I could not get my words out ... My mother and
teachers wondered why I screamed. Screaming was the only way I could
communicate. Often I would logically think to myself, 'I am going to scream now
because I want to tell somebody I don't want to do something.' " Refrigerator mothers
The history of autism research has until recently been a sorry one. It was not
until 1943 that autism was first identified as a distinct neurological
condition by Leo Kanner, a Johns Hopkins University psychiatrist. The cause of
autism eluded Kanner, but a few years later, a Hungarian psychotherapist named
Bruno Bettleheim claimed the source to be cold, unfeeling parents who drove
their children into mental isolation. However dubious-sounding now, Bettleheim's
conclusions were widely disseminated over the next two decades. Autism was
lumped with other psychological maladies. Research languished. Bettleheim's
notions eventually crumbled as advances in medical science and technology
revealed more and more about how the human brain really works. But autism
remains more enigmatic than not. Disability from the disease varies in the
extreme. Some autistic persons require constant supervision and assistance,
even permanent institutionalization. Others attend regular schools, find jobs,
lead independent lives. Their affliction may not even be noticed by most
people. The
brain broken down
Reduced to its essentials, the search for the cause of autism focuses upon two
factors: genetics and the environment. Is autism passed down? Or is it provoked
by something around us, a toxin or virus perhaps? There is little doubt
genetics plays a part. Three out of four autistic people are male. A family
with one child with autism has a 5 percent to 10 percent chance of having
another child with the disease, while a family with no autistic children has
only a 0.1-to-0.2 percent chance of having a child with autism. Most mainstream
autism researchers believe the disease results from neurological problems that
occur during prenatal development or in the first years of life when the
newborn brain is still busily making new connections. Patricia Rodier, an
embryologist at the University of Rochester, has published papers describing
structural abnormalities in an autistic brain that suggest something untoward
happens to the embryonic brain just weeks after conception, well before most
women even know they are pregnant. Other researchers note that autistic brains
have smaller memory, emotion and learning centers -- the amygdala, hippocampus
and cerebellum -- than normal, a finding that suggests developmental
disturbances in the third trimester of pregnancy or shortly after birth. An
autistic brain does not seem to function like a normal brain. At UCSD,
neuroscientist Eric Courchesne and colleagues have used deep-brain scans to
show that the fusiform gyrus, a part of the brain involved with face
recognition, is not active when autistic children are shown pictures of faces.
Instead, a different part of the brain lights up. Other studies report apparent
malfunctions in the parietal lobes, which contain important sensory centers,
and the corpus callosum, the bundle of nerve fibers connecting the brain's two
halves. Anatomical and functional abnormalities like these strongly suggest
dysfunctional genes and misguided development. Some gene candidates have been
identified -- a gene called WNT2 and another called HOXA1, both involved in
early brain development and a third gene that codes for serotonin, a key
protein used in neuron communications. It has been estimated that 10 or more
genes may ultimately be implicated. Shot in the dark
But bad genes are probably not the strict cause of autism -- at least not in
all cases. Rather, certain genes and resulting brain development could
predispose some children to autism if other factors come into play. The
identity of these factors is a subject of considerable controversy and
consternation. They range from chemicals in the water supply to antibiotics to
drugs used to induce labor. Most notorious, though, is the widely disseminated
belief that childhood vaccinations are the villain, specifically the
measles/mumps/rubella or MMR injection, which is typically given to children
shortly after the age of 1, a time when many parents say they first notice autistic
behaviors. "The vast majority of people with young kids with autism
believe it was caused by a vaccine or by an overexposure to vaccines,"
said Bernard Rimland, founder of the San Diego-based Autism Research Institute.
According to Rimland and others, there are at least two scenarios in which
vaccinations could lead to autism. In one, trimerosal -- a mercury-based
preservative once widely used in some childhood vaccines -- causes neurological
damage to infants who are eventually diagnosed as autistic. In the other
scenario, the multitude of required vaccines, some containing weakened viruses,
overwhelms the immature immune systems of vulnerable children, leading to brain
infections by invasive, neuron-damaging microorganisms and chemicals.
"Kids today are inoculated with 22 vaccines, compared to just three in
1940," said Rimland. "I'm not against vaccines, though I don't think
they do nearly as much good as some of the drug companies and the medical
establishment would suggest. But I do ask, how many vaccines can a kid take
before his immune system breaks down?" Current concern over an
autism-vaccine link erupted in 1998 after British research pointed to MMR as a
potential culprit. But newer studies, responding to the uproar, have found no
creditable evidence of a connection. In one study, researchers compared the
number of Californian children diagnosed with autism between 1980 and 1994 with
those who received the MMR vaccine during the same period. The vaccination
rate, during this time, rose 14 percent while the autism rate grew many times
faster. If there were a compelling link, the researchers concluded, the rates
should have been much more similar. Because the exact cause of autism remains
unknown, people understandably cast around for possible reasons and answers.
Vaccines are easy targets, experts say. Anecdotal stories abound about an
apparent causal link, but the connection seems more coincidental than
scientific. "Who's to say there aren't things in the environment involved
in autism," said B.J. Freeman, a professor of medical psychology at UCLA.
"But one of them isn't MMR. If you look hard enough and know what to look
for, you can see evidence of autistic symptoms in the first few months of life
in 95 percent of cases." Treating autism
There is no cure for autism, but its effects can be ameliorated. The key,
according to Freeman, is identifying autistic children as soon as possible --
and acting. In a small room, a young woman sits on the floor surrounded by toys
and a small boy named Nikko. She picks up a toy -- a plastic train -- and rolls
it across a table, hooting. Nico pays no attention at first, but then grabs for
the train. The woman pulls it away, insisting first that Nikko tell her what
it's called. "What is this, Nikko? It's a train. Say train." Nikko
frowns, refuses to speak. Finally, he mutters something that sounds like train,
grabs the toy and happily begins rolling it himself, back and forth. From
behind a mirrored window, unseen by Nikko and the woman, Laura Schreibman
watches the exchange. Beside her, two graduate students film the action and jot
down times and behaviors. Schreibman runs UCSD's Autism Research Laboratory, an
ongoing investigation into various behavioral methods being used and promoted
as treatments for autistic children like Nikko. As all parents of autistic
children learn, there is no shortage of alleged autism remedies. Some advocate
dietary changes, such as boosting vitamin intake or eliminating certain food
proteins like gluten from grains and casein from dairy products. Some require
treatments that allegedly purge the body of heavy metals and other toxins.
Others employ drugs, from medicines used to combat depression, convulsions and
hyperactivity to more controversial concoctions like secretin, a hormone involved
in digestion. Supporters of these therapies often cite examples of autistic
children who have seemingly stepped back from the mental brink and rejoined
their families, friends and the external world. "Very few people talk
about a cure, but I've seen plenty of autistic kids treated who are now
indistinguishable from normal kids," said Rimland of the Autism Research
Institute and an advocate of vitamin therapy. But others are less persuaded.
"If a parent tells me that they want to change their autistic child's
diet, give them extra vitamins, and I don't see any specific medical harm, then
who am I to tell them not to do that?" said Schreibman. "But the only
treatments empirically demonstrated to be effective for autism are based on
behavior. They're not a cure, but nothing else has been documented to work, at
least not scientifically." Applied behavioral analysis (ABA) comes in many
forms. No single method works for every autistic child. Some, like Nico,
respond better than others. "Nico is motivated by toys," said
Schreibman. "A lot of autistic kids aren't. Toys don't interest them, and
that makes connecting with them that much harder." Connecting is a key to
behavior training. While typical children absorb social lessons around them
almost automatically, autistic children do not. A normal kindergartener, for
example, might see his peers line up for class and conclude he's supposed to do
so as well. An autistic child might not even notice there were other children
nearby. Behavior training is what it sounds like. Therapists use visual and
verbal cues to teach autistic children what to do and how to behave in
different, specific circumstances. Sometimes this is done with pictures, food,
mimicry or simply repeating a behavior until the child catches on. The setting
can be limited to a child and therapist or parent, or it can take place in a
more communal setting, such as the Children's Toddler School, a preschool run
by Children's Hospital that enrolls and mixes together autistic and
developmentally normal children. "Other children are often the best
teachers," said Aubyn Stahmer, clinical research director at the school. A future after all
When parents first arrive at UCSD's autism lab, they are asked to imagine where
their autistic child will be in 20 years. Responses tend to be optimistic.
"Most parents say college or married," said Schreibman. But these
expectations usually decline as parents become more realistic about what
science and medicine can do. Schreibman offers optimism, but not false hope.
Yet that still represents a profound change from the past. A generation ago,
there seemed no hope at all. Autism was a mysterious scourge, an unidentified
robber of children's minds and personalities. Last year, researchers at the
National Institutes of Health reported that they had found elevated levels of
certain brain proteins in newborns who later became autistic. The finding
represents the real possibility that biological markers might exist that could
eventually help doctors identify autism before symptoms become catastrophic.
"With early diagnosis, within the first few years of life, and effective
treatment, the natural progression of autism is improvement," said UCLA's
Freeman. "That's not a grim prognosis." Rather, it's a start.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/uniontrib/wed/currents/news_1c9autism.html
******************************
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