The National Business Review - August 4

Controversy over health issues associated with milk shouldn't stop consumers from drinking it, according to the NZ Food Safety Authority.

The NZFSA today released the results of a study -- Beta casein A1 and A2 milk and human health -- that says there is insufficient evidence to demonstrate benefits of one type of milk protein over another.

There has been some concern that some milk proteins might cause or protect against type 1 diabetes, heart disease, schizophrenia and autism.

"Professor Boyd Swinburn's review of the literature on possible benefits of A2 milk over A1 concludes that there is insufficient overall evidence that either milk has benefits over the other. However, it does note that further work is needed in this area to determine any causative relationships between types of milks and certain diseases," said NZFSA Director of Food Standards, Carole Inkster.

Professor Swinburn concludes in the report:

"The hypothesis that a high intake of milk containing A1 â-casein promotes conditions as heterogeneous as DM-1 [type 1 diabetes], IHD [Ischaemic heart disease], schizophrenia and autism is intriguing and potentially important. There is some very suggestive evidence from ecological studies for DM-1 and IHD, and there is certainly a possibility that the A1/A2 composition of milk is a factor in the etiology of these conditions. However, this hypothesis has yet to be backed by good human trials. The evidence in relation to autism comes mainly from poorly controlled clinical trials of gluten-free, casein-free diets where some improvement is noted in the autism characteristics and behaviours. The evidence in relation to schizophrenia is very minimal."

Carole Inkster says Professor Swinburn's review shows that there is insufficient evidence to demonstrate benefits of one type of milk protein over another.

"We will be liaising with the Commerce Commission over what further steps, if any, need to be taken to ensure that consumers have the information they need to make a fair and informed choice."

The controvery erupted over claims by the A2 Corporation that milk containing a protein known as A2 had special health benefits. A2 claimed that research showed regular milk -- which contains the protein known as A1 -- had demonstrable links to diabetes, heart disease and autism.

A2 Corporation was co-founded in February 2000 by businessman and entrepreneur Howard Paterson, and scientist Dr Corran McLachlan.

Responding to Professor Swinburn's report, A2 Corporation said in a statement that it welcomed the report's "numerous recommendations for further research into the potentially positive health benefits of A2 Milk."

A2 CEO, Andrew Clarke, said it was noteworthy that in his Lay Summary, Professor Swinburn had stated that: "The A1/A2 hypothesis is both intriguing and potentially very important for population health if it is proved correct. It should be taken seriously and further research is needed."

A2 Corporation pointed out that in specifically discussing health conditions such as Type 1 diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular diseases and neurological disorders, Professor Swinburn had stated in his Executive Summary:"All the conditions discussed are major contributors to mortality and morbidity, so any dietary factor that could reduce the burden they impose should be taken seriously and examined for potential public health and clinical recommendations. It is abundantly clear that much more research is needed in all of these areas."

"We at A2 Corporation welcome these calls that Professor Swinburn has made and look forward to further research confirming the health benefits of A2 Milk," said Mr Clarke.

PRWeb - July 31

New Autism & Asperger's audio CD is an informative, insightful and inspirational production to help educate parents, relatives, teachers and employers about autism and Asperger Syndrome. It features interviews, poetry and music from people who have Autism and Asperger's, educational and insightful interviews with parents and researchers as well as compelling stories of hope.

Royal Oak, MI (PRWEB) July 31, 2004 -- Many people have heard of autism, but few are familiar with its close relative: Asperger Syndrome. Actually, most people know very little about both conditions or have misconceptions about persons with Autism and Asperger's. That's precisely why Mindscape Productions, L.L.C. developed an audio CD to educate people about autism and Asperger's in an interesting, engaging and inspirational way. The CD, entitled "Living In The Spectrum: Autism & Asperger's" is filled with valuable nuggets of insight from researchers, parents and actual individuals who are affected by the disorders. It takes a unique, optimistic approach to covering both conditions, featuring captivating music, poetry and interviews.

"The CD offers a practical, informative, user-friendly way to learn about autism and Asperger's," says Lecia Macryn, who co-created the CD with Jeff LaDuke of Mindscape Productions. "You don't have to sit and crack open a book. You can pop it in a CD player and listen to it at your convenience, while you're doing other things like driving or working on the computer."

Autism is a spectrum disorder whose symptoms and characteristics can present themselves in a wide variety of combinations, from mild to severe. Symptoms include: disturbances in the rate of appearance of social and language skills; abnormal responses to sensations; impairment of speech and language; and abnormal ways of relating to people, objects and events. Mildly affected individuals may show only slight delays in language and greater challenges with social interactions. The severe form of the syndrome may include extreme self-injurious, repetitive, highly unusual and aggressive behavior. Autism typically appears during the first three years of life. Recent research establishes the prevalence of Autism as 1 in 250 and is four times more common in boys than girls. It has been found throughout the world in families of all racial, ethnic and social backgrounds. Children don't "outgrow" autism, but symptoms may lessen as they develop and receive treatment.

Asperger's is a neurobiological disorder named for a Viennese physician, Hans Asperger, who published a paper in 1944 describing the autistic-like condition. Individuals with Asperger's typically don't have the severity of communication problems as those with autism, however, they show marked deficiencies in social skills, have difficulties with transitions or changes and prefer sameness. They typically have obsessive routines and may be preoccupied with a particular subject of interest. Often overly sensitive to sounds, tastes, smells, and sights, people with Asperger's may prefer soft clothing, certain foods, and be bothered by sounds or lights that no one else seems to notice..

"Living In The Spectrum" is an ideal primer for parents, relatives, teachers, employers and anyone wanting to learn about autism and Asperger's. Not the typical dry lecture, the 55-minute CD delivers a captivating and easy introduction to the subject matter. "It offers hope and encouragement," Macryn says. "It puts a whole new light and perspective on autism and Asperger's."

So far, parents and professionals have responded positively to the CD, which was officially released July 16.

"This CD is a breath of fresh air because it adds a new dimension to the total picture where doom and gloom is often the first emotion parents feel when their child has received a diagnosis of Autism," says, Laurence A Becker, PhD, Creative Learning Environments.

Parent, Suzanne Rossi says: "This positive approach left me with renewed hope that someday autism might be viewed less often as a disability and more often as human diversity. Great Job!

Karen Simmons, CEO and founder of Autism Today and the author of "Little Rainman," is equally impressed. "What a fabulous resource you have put together! I sure wish I had this available 10 years ago."

"Living In The Spectrum - Autism & Asperger's" is available for $16.95 online at www.mindscapeproductions.com or by phone via CDFreedom: 1-800-937-3397

Audio samples of the CD are also available on the website.

For more information or a press/media review copy, contact Lecia Macryn at (248) 288-2242.

By Jane Feinmann - Independent.co.uk - August 2

When Tim was diagnosed with autism five years ago, his parents were told he would be unlikely to speak or make relationships. Now aged seven and doing well in mainstream primary school, he and his family are moving to a new town and a fresh start. His mother, Andrea, believes that only other people's memories of his autistic past will hamper his future as a normally developing child.

His advances have occurred as a result of working with an intensive educational intervention programme - paid for by his local educational authority but unproven as a clinical intervention. And in the field of autism therapy, it is not unique in this respect.

Of the hundreds of remedies and interventions on offer to the half-million people with autism, of whom 100,000 are children, virtually none has been subjected to the stringent scientific evaluation required throughout the rest of health care.

"Evidence-based practice has passed autism by," says Richard Mills, the research director at the National Autistic Society (NAS). "Only eight per cent of the research budget spent on the disorder is spent on interventions. As a result, there is no reliable guidance available to desperate parents. Doctors are just as much in the dark as parents and often less wise because they think they know all the answers."

Inevitably, parents turn to the internet for help and the pressure to make the right choices can be overwhelming. There are a dozen or more intensive educational programmes for young children, of the type that have helped Tim. There are flash cards and behavioural therapies, diets that restrict what the child eats or add expensive supplements, not to mention opportunities to swim with dolphins. Drugs are equally under-investigated. Seven out of 10 children with autism are taking prescription drugs, including ritalin, SSRIs, major tranquillisers and anti-psychotics, none of which has been tested for people with autism or adequately studied in children. "Most parents start by believing that the disorder can be cured and throw themselves into researching therapies," says Andrea Spinks, the mother of eight-year-old, severely autistic Emily. "The paediatrician who diagnosed Emily gave us no advice whatsoever. So every time you hear of something new, you get terrified that you're missing the one therapy that will make all the difference."

Such pressures can prove expensive. Patrick Armstrong's parents have spent £45,000 in the two years since he was diagnosed with autism at the age of two - a substantial amount of which was not money well spent. Beverley Armstrong paid £3,000 to a "verbal behaviour consultant", who taught Patrick sign language and then left without giving notice. Another £1,000 went on a workshop that would have "taught Patrick as though he was a robot". And £250 went on an hour's telephone consultation with a nutritionist "who basically told me to make sure he ate his vegetables".

At last, however, change is on the way. The Autism Intervention Research Trust was set up last month to fund research both to "halt the exploitation and the wasted time and money on inappropriate methods of treatment" and to find out what works.

"Good advice, based on impartial scientific evaluation, is very hard for parents and many professionals to find," the Trust's chairman, Geoffrey Maddell, said at its launch. "Yet without effective and timely intervention, the consequences for the individual and the family can be devastating" - implying what many parents believe that, never mind the cause of autism, far more can be done to improve the life skills of children who have to live with the disorder.

The Trust, which has the support of leading international academics and will draw funding from the Government and the research bodies, has already begun work by drawing up a list of priorities, based on a survey carried out among the NAS membership. The initial task will be to provide doctors, and eventually parents, with a website that gives detailed information about the latest advances and methods of intervention, including claims that are being made about each therapy and how those claims stand up to scientific evaluation.

Parents are most keen to get an assessment of biomedical interventions, particularly diets and vitamin supplements - which are likely to be among the first candidates for evaluation. More tricky will be an assessment of the early intervention programmes, which appear to promise the greatest benefit and, at up to £40,000 a year per child, are by far the most expensive - not least, says Mills, because the wide autistic spectrum means that what works for one child will not necessarily help another.

What research there is, and almost none is independent, suggests that at least some children with autism can make massive strides forward. In 1987, the University of California Los Angeles psychologist, Ivar Lovaas, published the results of a (subsequently hugely successful) intensive early intervention programme, teaching cognitive skills to children under four years of age - reporting that 47 per cent of the children were successfully mainstreamed.

Since then, other early intervention programmes such as the Son-Rise programme, TEACCH and Growing Minds (which helped Tim) have become widely used on both sides of Atlantic. Beverley Armstrong has also found Growing Minds transformational - though she acknowledges that it takes up considerable time and money. "It's all about joining with the child to encourage him to relate to other people. You follow their lead, so that when he flaps his arms, you flap your arms."

Patrick is taught at home with a rota of up to four tutors at a time, with Beverley planning the programme, video taping lesson and regularly visiting the headquarters in the USA, "something I find essential to keep motivated". But it's worthwhile, she says - Patrick attends a mainstream playgroup, uses single words and has near-normal eye contact with people he meets. "He is still delayed developmentally but his progress has been astounding. He is as bright as a button and ready for mainstream primary school next year," she says. She is also trying to raise £7,000 to pay for a week's intensive training for Patrick in the US.

Another successful programme, PECS (Picture Exchange Communication System), which encourages children with autism to exploit their often highly developed visual senses, has helped Emily Spinks. Three months ago, she started producing animated stories that are already provoking interest in the art world. "Suddenly, there's this feeling: Em's got something. After all the work for such little reward, suddenly a door has opened," says her mother.

Yet there is also deep concern about the "umpteen complaints" that the NAS receives from parents who have invested heavily in their children's future and been disappointed. There's also recognition that the programmes are both very expensive and under-assessed, not least as regards their long-term impact.

"Take, for instance, the fact that at two weeks, a normally developing baby is aware of its mother's emotions. Yet that is something that will always remain a problem for someone with autism," says Ofer Golan, a research coordinator at Cambridge University's Autism Research Centre who uses the centre's Mind Reading programme (Jessica Kingsley Publishers) to help eight- to 14-year-old Asperger's children to develop an emotional language. "At a basic level, where children are learning about different emotions by rote, reinforced by rewards, the programme works quite well. But even with a group of high-achieving autistic children, the difficulty comes when they're encouraged to generalise what they've learnt to other situations. One of them asked me: "Well, now I can tell when someone is angry with me. So what do I do now?"

There is concern, says Richard Mills, that while children lose the symptoms of autism, and behave in ways that are more acceptable, enabling them to progress at school more easily, they remain autistic. "When they get to secondary school or university, where social skills are needed for survival, there can be problems."

Meanwhile, at Reading University, microbiologists have just got the go-ahead for new research, focusing - for the first time since the MMR débâcle - on the high incidence of gastro-intestinal problems in children with autism, with the possibility that probiotics, live microbiological food supplements that have been shown to prevent toxic bacteria from colonising the gut, may have a role in therapy.

In a previous study, professor Glenn Gibson at Reading's department of microbiology, has already shown that that, compared to normally developing children, those with autism are more likely to have a poisonous type of bacteria, clostridia, in their gut, as well as having a higher risk of suffering chronic constipation or diarrhoea. "It is a particularly nasty bug that can cause a dangerous gut disease in newborns," explains professor Gibson. "It also produces neurotoxins, which can affect the brain - which may explain the link with autism."

In the new study, a group of autistic children with high levels of the clostridia, will be given a probiotic drink that contains Lactobacillus plantarum, "good" bacteria that the team has already shown are able to keep the clostridia under control. At the same time, psychologists will monitor the children's use of language and social skills and compare them with another group of autistic children who will receive a placebo.

What's certain to emerge from this and the other new research programmes, is that there is no cure for autism. The new research programmes, however, represent a welcome change in clinical attitude to autism - that the existence of a wide autistic spectrum and the lack of understanding of its cause, doesn't mean parents should be left alone to decide how to provide support. As Geoffrey Maddell says: "Research into autism needs to be based on a wholehearted belief in the value of those on the spectrum and the hidden benefits they can bring to those around them. It must help them realise their potential."

The National Autistic Society helpline: 0845 0704004; Autism Intervention Research Trust: 0117 974 8400

By Jill Tucker, STAFF WRITER - Tri-Valley Herald - August 5

Russell Filman didn't want to use the potty chair. He did, however, want the Matchbox car given as a reward for completing the task. So the 3-year-old faked it.

With his mom within ear shot, Russell filled the plastic pot with tap water, his giggles giving him away.

The episode is one of those childhood stories parents love to tell.

But for Russell's parents, it's a story that reminds them of a boy who doesn't exist anymore. Just a few months after the potty incident, their smart, funny little son was gone, while a shell of that former child remained. Within the span of a couple of weeks, Russell stopped talking. He stopped joking. He stopped giggling. At his birthday, his body turned 4, but his mind was at 9 months.

He walked in circles, over and over and over, staring at the carpet at his feet.

"He just kind of fell apart," said his mom Myrna Filman. "He just lost all speech. He didn't know any of us. He lost almost everything. I can't tell you the nightmare we went into."

Russell, his family would learn, was autistic.

And now a decade later, still no one knows why.

The neurological disorder is almost entirely a mystery to scientists, researchers, doctors and parents -- even 60 years after it was identified.

But within six months, a rare, worldwide collaboration of researchers sponsored by the parent-established National Alliance for Autism Research are hoping to break that code by sifting through Russell's and 6,000 other samples of DNA from 1,500 families to identify the genes or even the general regions of DNA that cause autism.

In the world of medical research, it's a nearly impossible time frame, but new technology from Santa Clara-based Affymetrix will break down the data in months rather than the years it would have taken just a year or two ago.

Experts not connected to the Autism Genome Project say the $2 million study is a gamble, one on which families shouldn't pin false hopes.

But such advice won't stop Myrna Filman and parents like her from hoping.

Just months after Russell's diagnosis, the Filmans would learn their daughter Jackie, then 6, was autistic too -- less of a shock because she had exhibited the unusual behavior since infancy.

"We have to find a cure for this," Filman said, explaining that Russell is now in a group care setting because he's too aggressive to remain home. "It's so devastating."

The 1,500 families in the Autism Genome Project each have more than one autistic child. The project is one of many searches for the causes and cures of autism -- a disorder affecting about four children out of every 1,000. Boys are five time more likely to be autistic than girls.

In California, there are 10 children entering the state system with some form of autism every day, with more than 20,000 autistic residents currently receiving services, according to the California Department of Developmental Services.

Autism is not one disorder, but encompasses a spectrum, ranging from mild to severe. Autistic children often share similar traits, including delay of speech, absence of eye contact, repetitive or odd play, obsession with certain objects.

Some are extremely intelligent, but socially unable to function.

Some are mentally retarded. Some, like Russell, regress in development, something that typically occurs between 18 months and 3 years.

Most researchers believe there is a genetic link, possibly defective genes triggered by an environmental factor. Vaccines with a preservative containing mercury have been considered a possible source, although research so far has found no connection.

Some studies are producing results, including recent research by the MIND Institute at the University of California, Davis, indicating the brain regions responsible for memory and emotion are larger in autistic children.

But what that means and how it happens elude scientists.

"People have been trying to figure out autism for decades and we still know nothing about it," said Dietrich Stephan, director of the neurogenomics program at the Translation Genomics Institute and leader of the Autism Genome Project. "Literally nothing."

The DNA for the project has been provided by 170 researchers worldwide who have joined efforts -- a rare collaboration in scientific research -- to find a genetic link to the condition.

California-based Cure Autism Now donated a third of the samples -- which took more than seven years to collect at a cost of $6 million, said Clara Lajonchere, program director for the nonprofit's Autism Genetic Resource Exchange.

"It's huge for the autism community, she said of the research. "It's huge. This is what we wanted to do all along."

In a mind-boggling process that mimics semi-conductor technology, Affymetrix's Gene Chip Microarray will put the DNA information on glass chips, to more easily analyze each person's 30,000 genes for common mutations.

Stephan, at his Phoenix-based institute, will run the array.

"If there's a common piece of DNA that 6,000 people have in common, this should pick it up," said Affymetrix spokesman Wes Conrad.

Read More...

By Annette Fuentes, for E/The Environmental Magazine - August 3

No one could accuse Lyn Redwood of being anti-vaccination or suspicious of the medical establishment. After all, the Atlanta, Georgia resident was a nurse practitioner and member of her county's board of health, which promoted childhood vaccination. But in 1999, when her happy, healthy toddler, Will, began to regress developmentally at 15 months-he lost speech, he avoided eye contact and seemed miserable-Redwood set out to learn why. And her quest led to thimerosal, a preservative used in some vaccines that is 49.6 percent ethylmercury, a known neurotoxin.

Redwood had received two thimerosal-containing injections of RhoGam while pregnant because her blood was Rh negative. Will got all the recommended vaccines for infants, including multiple shots of Hepatitis B, Haemophilus influenzae B (HiB) and diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTaP)-all containing thimerosal. By her calculations, Redwood's son has been exposed to mercury in quantities far exceeding safe levels. To Redwood, the cause of Will's illness was clear: mercury poisoning. "If someone had told me prior to 1999 that vaccines were responsible for my son's disabilities, I would have thought they were crazy," she says.

Thousands of parents like Lyn Redwood have watched their normal children suddenly become ill, exhibiting symptoms called autism spectrum disorders. From Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Asperger's Syndrome on one end of the spectrum, to severe forms of autism on the other, these illnesses have seemingly exploded into what many consider an epidemic in just the last decade.

Autism was rare, diagnosed in one in 10,000 children, before 1980. But in 2002, the National Institutes of Health estimated that one in 250 U.S. children were affected. The Autism Society of America projects that autism disorders are increasing by 10 percent every year. Boys are four times more likely than girls to be diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders, a disparity some scientists attribute to hormonal differences. Genetics may also play a role in susceptibility. Some critics counter that rises in autism rates may be better attributed to increasing awareness among parents and doctors of autism than to any environmental toxin. But for Redwood and a growing number of activists and scientific researchers, the key to autism disorders is thimerosal. Can it be mere coincidence, they ask, that the rise in autism began during the same period when the number of vaccines was tripled? In the early 1990s, the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved for use Hepatitis B and HiB vaccines for infants and children, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) added them to its list of recommended childhood vaccines.

The total number of vaccines containing mercury increased to 11, containing a cumulative total 237.5 micrograms of ethylmercury injected into children during the first year and a half of their lives. There are no standards on acceptable exposure to ethylmercury, unlike its chemical (and more toxic) cousin methylmercury, which is found in fish in polluted oceans.

Lax safety tests

Although thimerosal, invented by the Eli Lilly company, has been used to preserve vaccines since the 1930s (and was used in over-the-counter products, such as eye drops, nasal sprays and topical antiseptics) the FDA has never required testing of its safety or of safe levels of exposure in newborns and children. And the CDC never considered the consequences of increasing infants' exposure to mercury as it multiplied the number of suggested vaccines. CDC immunization expert Roger Bernier explains, "Vaccines tend to be evaluated on an individual basis, and a holistic view of safety was not part of the review."

Through her research, Redwood found allies in a group of parents of autistic children who were also seeking answers. They founded Safe Minds, an advocacy group that has also conducted studies, including "Autism: A Novel Form of Mercury Poisoning," published in 2001 in the journal Medical Hypotheses. The study shows the symptoms of mercury poisoning were virtually the same as those in autism disorders. Safe Minds took their findings to government agencies. Redwood says, "We petitioned the FDA unsucessfully on three occasions to take thimerosal off the market."

Congress had requested the FDA in 1997 to review mercury in products, and in 1998, the agency had banned all over-the-counter products containing thimerosal. A year later, the FDA, CDC and National Institutes of Health issued a joint statement with the American Academy of Pediatrics that urged vaccine manufacturers to stop using thimerosal because of a "theoretical potential for neurotoxicity."

In February 2000, scientist Thomas Verstraeten presented the first of several analyses of the CDC's Vaccine Safety Datalink, a patient record database that includes information on children vaccinated who developed neurological disorders. Verstraeten's earliest findings showed a risk of autism 2.48 times greater for infants who received the highest amounts of mercury in vaccines. A June 2000 analysis showed a connection between thimerosal exposure and language, speech and developmental delays for infants up to six months old.

A Blizzard of Suits

In the years since, the thimerosal-autism connection has become a hotly contested issue, and one with tremendous political and economic implications. Hundreds of parents have filed lawsuits against Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline and other companies that used thimerosal. In November 2002, Congress sought to protect the drug giants from such legal action by inserting a liability waiver in the Homeland Security Act. Three months later, public outcry forced its repeal. Although the FDA and CDC requested that thimerosal be removed from vaccines, no direct ban was ever issued, and the agencies' scientists have steadfastly defended thimerosal.

In November 2003 a study published in Pediatrics, and co-authored by Verstraeten, presented the final analysis of the CDC's database. All of the positive findings of neurological delays and autism have disappeared. Safe Minds and other critics argue this is a product of questionable methodology and selective data use. Verstraeten's current status as an employee of GlaxoSmithKline was excluded from the article.

WebMD reports that the federally funded study published in The Lancet the same month by lead researcher Michael E. Pichichero "offers reassurance to those who are concerned about the health risks of vaccines containing the preservative thimerosal." WebMD concludes, "Researchers found that blood mercury levels in vaccinated infants were well below those considered safe and that mercury was eliminated from the body much faster than expected." But Boyd Haley, a toxicology researcher at the University of Kentucky and expert on mercury issues, says he questions the validity of the study.

In February of this year, the California Environmental Protection Agency issued a report in response to a petition made by the Bayer Corporation, which was asking the state not to classify thimerosal as a reproductive and developmental toxin under clean water rules. The California agency reviewed the scientific literature and concluded that thimerosal should be considered toxic. Says vaccine researcher Mark Geier, "This is another powerful piece of evidence showing that thimerosal has no place in vaccines."

Today, thimerosal is still used in some vaccines given to children, including Fluzone by Aventis Pasteur, which is provided in multi-dose vials. Thimerosal is also present in what are called "trace" amounts, defined as less than half a microgram of mercury per dose, in several pediatric vaccines, including a Hepatitis B shot from GlaxoSmithKline.

Infants and children, with their less-developed immune systems and still-growing neurological systems, are more vulnerable to mercury's toxicity, but everyone may want to read vaccine labels before being stuck with a needle. FluMist from MedImmune is an example of a thimerosal-free vaccine.

Annette Fuentes lives in upstate New York and writes frequently on health topics.

Washington, July 30(ANI):

Researchers at the Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh claim to have unravelled the mystery behind autism, a system wide brain disorder that limits communication and interaction skills.

The study to appear in the British journal Brain next month, suggests that autism is caused by under-connectivity.

The results were arrived at with the use of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans, which found out numerous abnormalities in brain activity in people who despite having normal IQ still suffer from autism.

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