i read a long time ago [in PsychToday], of a social experiment where these college students were put together in a small room with some other college students who were in on the experiment, where the other students would systematically shun the one student, and at the end of the test, the other students were called away on a pretext and the one student was given cognitive tests in spoken conversation, and the shunned student showed symptoms of cognitive decline, in just the few hours duration of the experiment. so if this type of dysfunction can be induced in an otherwise normal kid in just an afternoon, it isn't a far stretch that over a long period of time, that quasi-autistic symptoms can also be induced in people as well. just thinking... i am no smartie when it comes to these bigbrained things.