neuroscience

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Can anyone recommend a good book on the neuroscience of autism/aspergers?

I find most accessible information on hard neuroscience frustrating. It's either pop science on a conversational level which doesn't help you understand what's really going on anatomically at all -- or its specialist discourse which already assumes you already have thorough command of the science. Is there any material which respects your intelligence and will walk a layperson through the biology? I'm usually good at learning on my own but I feel like Im facing a vertical learning curve and an academic culture of information hoarding

Never checked out a book like that.

Did you read The Complete Guide to Asperger's Syndrome 1st Edition by Tony Attwood? It's a good starting point imho

Unfortunately, there is not much on neuroscience of autism, like an accessible overview of research about autistic brain.
There are many good popular science books on neuroscience in general.
Look for the ones written by neuroscientists like Dehaene, Damasio, Koch, etc.
It is good to have understanding of how brain works in general to place findings about autistic brain in context, so perhaps read some general neuro books to build knowledge in that area.
Then scientific reviews of neuroscience of autism to get an overview of what is known about autistic brain so far.
Unlike clinical psychology of autism, neuroscience of autism has not been going on very long, so most information is not in books or even reviews, but scientific articles about specific studies.

I seriously doubt that there IS any. Even in the science community the subject is mostly conjecture. Its not as if there is a lot of stuff known to be true about the neurological differences between autististics, and non.

Can anyone recommend a good book on the neuroscience of autism/aspergers?

There are some good textbooks on neurophysiology. There is much that is known about motor neurons. Interestingly much of it was derived from the study of the large nerve of a squid.

The problem is two-fold. There is amazing complexity when brain neurology is undertaken and secondly human experimentation has been out of favor for 70 years.

There are various hypotheses that may never be fully substantiated without experimentation. It might be different if one were to identify Aspergers in an animal which then could be experimented upon.

My own theory is that there are various neurological processes which combine to produce Aspergers. This may account for variations of some characteristics. I suspect a critical element is the neurological processing speed. This might account for the higher IQ, sensory overload, and excessive processing applied to social responses. It may also explain why amphetamines often seem to help ADHA (often associated with Aspergers).

You will probably find many people declaring various causes and reasons, but the closer one gets to “hard science” the less such declarations can be supported. Social workers, teachers, psychologists often feel the need to speak authoritatively. I personally find more useful the person who says, “It might be this or that”, or even just says they don’t know.

Okay thank you everyone. There is so much useful information here so I want to give a big general thank you before responding to some people individually.

http://newsroom.cumc.columbia.edu/blog/ ... ses-brain/

First, this is the theory of autism I've found which my brain says in the most comprehensive and promosing explanation for diverse autistic symptoms/character traits. I may be wrong, but this is what my brain feels like to me-- a superconnected structure which is connected is excess of necessity as defined by sociobiological/environmental survival utility. But let me say again and up front I am a layperson and qualified to talk about by own experiences but totally unqualified to pretend I know what I'm doing in neurological science. So if anyone disagrees please shoot me down brutally

Buying that and moving it to the top of my reading list. Perfect. Totes appreciated.

P.S. Can I PM you? I'm not sure if your handle's a River Song reference (I'm a total Doctor Who geek) or what but wanted to ask you a question. But only if you're okay I do not believe in being entitled to your time.


Okay will do that. Yeah I recognise this project entails learning general neuroscience but the payoff will be worth it as I think its really the most important science of our time anyway. An aspie-brain friendly good place to start like this is exactly what I need so thank you.


Thank you!! Can you recommend any? I read social science textbooks for fun but for some reason the hard science textbooks I got in class were always too dense without a lecture. My physics and biology are better than chemistry or biochem but I made decent marks in everything


Yeah I see your point and that is kinda unfortunate --- but human experimentation is most def wrong and I'm glad we as a society recognise human life has innate value. Which is why we should conduct the experiments on autistic nazis.


See the first link above!!


Yeah not impressed with the helping professional class who have been s**t to me all my life for so many reasons. Most of them are just hiding behind credentials and this establishment echo chamber culture -- on issues where I know the material they're wrong all the time.

Sure sweetie Love to chat w other female Whovians

P.S. Another good read might be The Autistic Brain: Thinking Across the Spectrum by Temple Grandin, Richard Panek

Check out her YT video as well

This isn't a subject you can usefully casually dip into, I think. If you don't know certain basics, you are relying on others to interpret everything for you, and their reports are so often contradictory and error filled, that it doesn't seem like a good way to go.

I found a coursera course quite helpful in approaching this subject:
https://www.coursera.org/learn/neurobiology

Another critical area for understanding current neurobiological research is a basic course in genetics, at least covering the nature of codons, the DNA->RNA->Ribosome sequence of protein synthesis and the underlying transcription and translation processes, CNVs and SNPs and epigenetic mechanisms.

It all seems very complicated at first, but if you dive in and get a solid foundation in these, you will have a much better idea of what the researchers are talking about when you look at stories about the latest research or read papers on these topics.

I don't think the book you want exists, so the best you can do is learn the fundamentals of the subject and then read the published research.

I'm not sure about books but there is some research being done into the neuroscience of autism. I found these couple of articles interesting:

http://www.zmescience.com/medicine/mind ... -27012015/

http://psychcentral.com/news/2015/01/21 ... 80216.html

They are both on the same subject (and mention the same study, I believe--it's been a while since I read them) but present interesting possibilities for further research.

If you go on Google scholar and search for a neuroscience of autism review. You will be able to find a paper that will review research that has currently been done in relation soon to autism and neuroscience.

A study of particular interest is the restructuring of synapses which occurs in children being altered in those with autism. Anyther suggestion is down regulation of an immunoglobulin which is involved in the immune system and some chemical neurotransmitters in the brain

HelloSweetie

Thanks sweetie. Will be in touch soon. Adding that book to the reading pile!

Could I trouble you for the link to the youtube? -- for some reason my browser won't read embedded videos on this site. I have watched several of Grandin's lectures.

Thank you for being serious with me -- I get what your saying and realise learning neuroscience involves a serious commitment to years of focused study. What I'm hoping is once I get a handle on a piece of it special interest dynamics will kick in and I'll naturally devour the field like I've done with other subjects. I'm not sure I'll succeed but I have to try as I've become convinced that if you're interested in people neuropsych is the new physics. Actually I'll go stronger and say that getting on top of neuroscience is going to be a life or death dividing socioeconomic line --- the 21st century will be a neurological arms race and the starting gun has already been fired. I don't think the results will be nice.

Wilberfurce

Thank you! That makes a lot of sense to me. As in minor local grand unifying theory kind of sense. For one thing this could help explain the amazing personality and sexual diversity I've seen within the autistic community. Also noticed that when AS people tell the story of their lives it's often a narrative of changing internal experiences, models, outlooks while neurotypicals will talk about relationships with an outside people/social environment. When I was a child I felt in control of my mind's development as a unified structure in a way most people seemed to believe not possible --- & that's still partially true today. I've taken a lot of psychoactive substances in my life and they seem to leave enduring personality marks more than for most people.

Also further cements me into the "autism can be a good thing" camp.

Alliekit

Appreciate my immune system is weak which causes serious problems and could be life threatening with antibiotic resistance a public health disaster waiting to happen. Understanding and maybe treating that is a great incentive to learn this stuff so thanx so much!

General thank you to everyone! I'm winding down my participation on this site so let me say goodbye and thank you to everyone who had contributed or given me useful advice.

Last edited by OdysseusNemo on 05 Oct 2016, 3:19 pm, edited 2 times in total.

If HelloSweetie likes somebody, I guess I'll have to like that person, too.

HelloSweetie is probably a good judge of character.

Hey if that's a gesture of acceptance I appreciate and thank you! -- but honestly I do need to move on. I should have said goodbye the moment my research was done.

Look otherwise a piece of advice meant in honest good faith. Signalling in front of a moderator for someone to get excluded from a group triggers a threat response -- as you may know humans process social exclusion as a survival issue which is why social rejection literally feels subjectively like dying. I'm a member of enough marginalised groups I come into every new situation primed for immediate attack and when someone pulls a social trump card it feels exactly the same whether you're a lesbian, aspie or whatever. That is why I flamed back at a few people on the other thread. If someone tries to take you out you try to take 'em out right back.

So please before pointing a weapon at me could people please check your records again? You guys don't know everything about my life. I have survived things which broke the other 99% of people. Society was conspicuously not there for me when I was completely helpless as a child & has attacked me my whole life since without provocation -- and I consider it a sick joke when it demands my loyalty and unilateral disarmament now. But if people will approach me respectfully and peacefully I am completely reasonable and actually kinda really need allies who will cooperate. People talk so much about this compassion thing but that's not what I see in their faces.

Don't go sweetie I felt your hurt from your first words. Sometimes words can work as a barrier...

You are safe and welcome here as far as I'm concerned. Please feel free to pm if you need.

As for the YouTube links. Here is a simple trick: if you use 'quote' in your reply then you should be able to see the link between the html encryption. Then copy paste to your browser.
Here is it again just in case
https://youtu.be/IA4tE3_2qmI
I especially liked the fMRI pics as I could compare them with my own

Hugs