Autism and the Brain – Free Neuroscience Course

Hello friends!

This is a new lesson in our Free Online Neuroscience Course. From now on, let’s start talking about the part of the neurosciences that most interests psychology, which is the influence of the nervous system on behavior that can be observed by everyone. As we said in the first Lesson on what neuroscience is, we have different levels of study that go from the microscopic level to the behavior of people in their natural environment, in social life, in short, normal day-to-day behavior and also the behaviors that are considered mental illnesses.

One of the clearest mental illnesses we have is the group that psychoanalysis calls the group of psychoses: autism, paranoia and schizophrenia. In this text, we will talk about autism and a new discovery that is revolutionizing studies, diagnosis and treatment.

In general, in the office of psychiatrists and psychologists or in the classroom of educators, autism is described and analyzed based on the behavior that can be observed. For the final diagnosis, one takes into account social interaction (almost null), the absence of language, self-consciousness (hence the word autism from self, for himself) and for few activities that arouse interest.

Another way to understand autism is as a syndrome that stops development. According to the DSM-IV, “Autistic Disorder is occasionally called early infantile autism, childhood autism, or Kanner autism. The impairment in reciprocal social interaction is widespread and persistent. There can be marked impairment in the use of multiple non-verbal behaviors (eg, direct eye contact, facial expression, body postures and gestures) that regulate social interaction and communication”.

If analyzed in the later phase, in adolescence, the subject may even be able to maintain some contact and communication with others, however, he does not understand social norms and conventions and is generally incapable of following them. I once saw an interview with an autistic man, who had well-developed communication skills and was quite intelligent, saying to his father – who had taught him that it was important to ask other people “how are you?” or “how are you” showing real interest in the other person – and he said he didn’t show it because he didn’t feel any interest in how other people were doing, really. That is, he was sincere in his feeling, but he could not understand the necessity of this social rule.

The diagnosis of autism has always been behavioral until now. It would be like saying a person has a heart problem just by looking at the way they walk. It can be helpful to observe behavior and see a person panting and flushed, but it would be much more accurate to use an EKG, wouldn’t it?

And that’s exactly what researcher Aditi Shankardass noticed. To analyze any brain disorder that affects behavior, why not analyze not just the behavior but the brain itself? With a new electroencephalogram, or EEG, technique and brain activity mapping programs, she was able to make a diagnostic distinction that has been transforming the lives of children who had a poor prognosis for change.

The EEG, the electroencephalogram is a method of analyzing brain waves through wires that capture the frequency on the scalp or directly on the brain. By directly observing individual differences or variations when carrying out one or another activity, she and her team of researchers from Harvard University were able to notice a hitherto unnoticed fact.

Aditi Shankardass tells the story of Justin Senegar, a seven-year-old who had been diagnosed with severe autism. His prognosis was that he would never be able to communicate or interact fully and would barely learn to speak. She says: “When we used this EEG technique to look at Justin’s brain, the results were amazing. The results were that Justin was certainly not autistic. He suffered from brain seizures that were invisible to the naked eye, but which were causing the symptoms that looked like autism. After receiving anti-seizure meds, his change has been fantastic. In a period of 60 days, his vocabulary went from two or three words to 300 words. And his communication and social interaction improved so much that he was enrolled in a regular school and even became a karate champion.”

Watch the video – New EEG technique reveals invisible side of autism

In short, recent research has shown that 50% of children diagnosed with autism actually have another disorder: cerebral micro-seizures that cause similar symptoms, but which, unlike autism, are symptoms and causes that can be treated with medication.

Conclusion

Analyzing observable behavior is useful in medicine, just as it is fundamental to psychiatry and clinical psychology. However, if more in-depth tests become available in more severe cases – such as autism – the diagnosis could change. Outwardly, the behavior of a child with autism and a child with small hidden seizures may be identical. Treatment, on the other hand, follows two distinct routes for one cause and the other.

In autism, the prognosis is generally not the best. It is likely that the patient will maintain all symptoms for life, although behavioral psychology techniques can help with social interaction, we can say that autism is a lifelong disease.

In the case of cerebral seizures, the treatment is medication and in a few months, a child who until then has been reclusive, speechless, and closed in on himself, can start to behave in a way that is compatible with his age.

This is why, and not just to learn more about the mind and the brain, neurosciences are so important and why governments around the world have invested in research of the kind, because, as in the case of autism (as a misdiagnosis ), a life like Justin’s can be transformed with the right diagnosis.

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