Stanford U & brain plasticity pill to reverse autism

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This Stanford scientist studied under Nobel Laureates and has made breakthrough findings about immune proteins in the brain that may hold the key to a cure for autism:

http://discovermagazine.com/2013/oct/12 ... mWTxZDn-aw

fascinating article.

I believe in the rights of adults to terraform their own bodies.

And I think in the coming decades, for better, for worse, or probably for both, people will start to go cyborg.

Now, parents making choices for their children, that becomes a much trickier enterprise.

Why is it called a cure...? Autism isn't a sickness, and even if there are people who want to prevent it for some reason, why should it be called a cure? Why can't it be called an autism block or something like hormone blockers? The person took hormone blockers to prevent puberty. The person took autism blockers to prevent autism. Hmmmmm, that sounds about right actually.

Thank you Stanford! I took some online classes there and OMG, the stuff they are working on is truly mindboggling.

I cringed when she spoke about suturing the kitten's eye shut.

It seems that with autism, these immune proteins in the brain ( never thought to exist within the brain before due to blood-brain barrier) may underprune the synapses, so there are too many neural connections, more so than optimal in normal brain development. In the case of Alzheimer's, the opposite is happening: the proteins are overpruning and resulting in too few neural connections.

She said that a pharma drug could be developed to moderate the immune proteins and thereby increase or decrease brain plasticity by regulating the immune protein receptors.

What is especially great for autistics is that this should also work for other comorbid conditions like schizophrenia. Plus this would not be treating symptoms or masking them, but act as a cure by rewiring the brain.

Serena, I just saw your comment. I meant "cure" in the sense of addressing the cause of autism, rather than its manifested symptoms.

Certainly, people who like their autism don't have to take the pill.

Did not mean to offend anyone by my choice of the word "cure" - I am on your side here as fellow Aspie.

I'd be cautious about making any "cure" statements, either. It sounds like you could prevent autism this way--if you weren't worried about leaving the fetus without a working immune system--but to change the brain at a fundamental level in adulthood would essentially mean erasing the connections already there. You would lose memories, learned skills, pretty much everything.

I don't think that "restoring plasticity" would break those connections--it could make it easier to learn and to repair brain injuries, maybe. But let's say that this actually works in an extreme way, allows you to remodel the basic differences that make you autistic--well, you'll be throwing your personality out the window along with your autism. It would be a second infancy, a blank slate. However much of yourself you wanted to keep, you'd have to keep that much autism, too. Become NT, and it would be someone else wearing your brain.

It might be used to prevent autism in the developing fetus, but that's pretty much it. I'm much more optimistic about its potential for helping people recover from strokes and head injuries.

Okay, on the general question of quote cure,

I want to be appreciated for the unique, creative person I am. Not held against some overly narrow definition of normal. (and no such thing as 'normal' anyway and how boring a place the world if there were! )

And one thing which potentially can help our entire society is just broadening the definition of normal.

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Yes, things are big issues, difficult issues. All the same, I think they're worth discussing from time to time.

I'll be staying me, thanks all the same!

Maybe I can pop a little oxytocin before I have to go to another team building exercise at work, but that's as far as I will go. A teardown/rebuild of me? Thank you, but no.

My kids need their dad, not a reprogrammed meat puppet.

I'd rather not destroy the connections in my brain, thank you very much.

I'll be staying far away from those pills.

Oh great. Another sick f**k torturing one animal species to "help" another.

I don't understand the science part of it, but I WANT TO TAKE THE PILL!! !! Even if it makes me more intellectually stupid or something, I don't give a f**k about that. I just want to be able to be more social without having something offish about me. Please make into that, please????! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !