Author, is this you? I was looking for bloggers with controinfo and found this blog, the last comment is signed bruno so I figured it's you

8 comments: Controinfo said... Doctor Cottingham: Could you tell us ( we are ignorant about your field) if autism reveals some symptoms that can be detected by modern technology like PET ? Thank you April 23, 2009 6:59 AM Controinfo said... and if yes, is there any similarity between autism symptoms and other mental diseases like schozofrenia for instance? April 23, 2009 7:02 AM Dr. Sandra Cottingham said... PET scanning analysis has been used to study the brains of with autism. Studies have uncovered brain abnormalities, specifically in the region of the brain known as the temporal lobes. Ongoing investigation is needed, however, to clarify the relationships between these physical differences in the brain and the perceptive, cognitive, and emotional developmental deficits that we see as features of a person with autism. One of the challenges in using the PET technology with individuals with autism is that the procedure itself is stressful. In schools, we often encounter challenges administering psychoeducational assessment and often question the accuracy of the results. You can appreciate the challenge of a PET scan which involves administering an IV, confined space, and sensory demands.In otherwords, children with autism are not straightforward PET scancandidates.Autism is a spectrum of pervasive developmental disorders that present in early childhood. It is marked by deficits in language, communication, and social interactions. The ability to integrate sensory information often results in self-stimulatory activity, or avoidance of sensory stimuli. Children with autism may perseverate on a single activity or theme, e,g., a fascination with trains, with little interest in other themes that are age typical. Autism spans the entire range of intellectual ability from gifted to severe mental retardation. Autism is significantly more prevalent in boys. April 23, 2009 5:28 PM Dr. Sandra Cottingham said... Following up on your second question about the relationship between schizophrenia and autism, if any...Over the course of my 23 years in schools, I have witnessed an increase not only in autism, but also in schizophrenia and other mental health disorders. No doubt by now it is clear that I do no subscribe to the theory of genetic cause for autism. While I have not read the research on schizophrenia to the same exhaustive extent that I have for autism, ADHD, learning disabilities, etc. what I have read and considered fits with the theory of in-utero exposure to neurotoxins. While I do not have statistics on how many autistics also have schizophrenia, I can tell you the overlap between mental illness in general and autism is very high. It would take a lot to convince me that these two issue are anything but the result of brain damage, in-utero by a common neurotoxin. Likewise, Alzeimers. The research is rolling in.Hope that answers your questions. April 23, 2009 5:41 PM Controinfo said... Doctor Cottingham, thank you so much for sharing with us such precious information. But I am going to move to other questions as I feel I have found an important source of data and opinions and I am trying to exploit it on pain of looking petulant.My two questions were pertinent to neuroscience and they could be labeled ‘scientific psychology questions“. My next questions are rather to be labeled ‘folk psychology questions’ at least from my point of view. 1) Does the autistic subject have any notion of his identity? ( I use the masculine pronoun because male gender is preponderant in autism as we have learned from you, - by the way isn’t this an indication - apparently excluded by you when you express the opinion autism is not genetic, that it may be indeed genetic? ) 2)If yes is this notion of identity, a primitive one, completely different from any stage of the normal child intellectual development, or similar to same stage of normality stopping at an early point? 2a) Does the autistic subject have a clear separation of himself from the external world or does his notion of identity tend to attribute any and every perception to himself, identifying himself with the whole range of perceptions? 2b) If he has a clear notion of where he ends in this world ,and where the external world begins, has he any notion of an object as we understand it? Or his fragmentation of reality is peculiar to say the least, his notion of the object is alien to our conception of them? I am fully aware that my questions cannot have a stright scientific answer, but they may just be a matter of opinion. I am appealing to the opinion you have formed after so many years of work with the subject.( If you find my English not fluid is because I am a foreigner and struggle with English, sorry ). April 24, 2009 12:20 PM sandracottingham said... I am not on the autism spectrum myself, and so my response to what it is truly like to be autistic is only an opinion derived from research and a lot of experience working with individuals - mostly teens - with autism.I mention teens because it is developmentally "normal" for teens to be rather self-absorbed and ego-centric. Teens on the autism spectrum, in my experience, have ranged from being acutely aware of others and how they appear to those around them, to a complete lack of awareness including an absence of "theory of mind". But lack of "theory of mind" tends to present with the population of people with moderate to severe intellectual disability, and may be more related to that than autism.The predominate driver, again - my experience, in autism and autistic-like behaviors is an pre-occupation with / or over-riding need to create sensory homeostatis. In otherwords, they are driven significantly by their sensory needs - both avoidance and seeking, since the sensory data in their environment is coming in, but being processed erroneously.Does someone with autism have any sense of their own identity? I believe the answer is,for some- yes. Is this sense accurate? ( Is our own?)There are many bright, articulate, self-reflecting people with autism orautism spectrum disorders. There are also individuals who are severely cognitively delayed. I think your answer lies within that piece, more than in the autistic identity.I will add, though, that there is so much mental illness occuring with children at the high intelligence end of the spectrum - much of it paranoia and anxiety -related. I am not sure that their "sense" of those around them is accurate. I will finish by saying that the range of autistic manifestations is as broad and varied as people who have been diagnosed with autism.There are very stereotyped portrayals in the media, the likes of which have never appeared in my own experience. And I have worked with or consulted re literally hundreds of kids with autism. There are some things we can generalize about and some things we can't.I hope something in what I responded is at least food for thought.All the best. April 25, 2009 1:23 PM Controinfo said... Thank you so much for your prompt answer which covers more than my ill conceived questions deserve. Obviously I made the naïve mistake of considering autism an ideal standard, equal for every subject ,when it is evident that the term covers a large spectrum of levels and a variety of problems.My interest in autism is not an interest per se. I am interested in a form of naturalized epistemology from a logico-philosophical perspective. In particular I believe that there are reasons to attribute to the preverbal child a conception of her own identity that includes every perceptions, in other words she identifies herself with the entire world (known to her). Only with the advent of language finally she begins to separate herself ( her body, and later her mind) from the surrounding environment.The fragmentation of the world in objects and their relations is inextricably connected with language ( reality in my view is mental).Now for some reasons that I spare you, I fancied autism as a form of mental development that does not progress to higher, successive developmental stages, and, were I right, it would have been a vast source of information about a preverbal stage in general.So I was after evidence that an autistic subject or any subject seriously affected by mental problems, does not separate herself from the external world which in turn is not separated in objects and their relations. I suppose that tests can be fancied, at least, to have a rough idea of how a child perceives her own self and the multiplicity in which she lives. Much to the point I am interested in, and discouraging at the same time, is your bringing up the fact that sense data are anomalously processed in some cases of serious form of autism, which makes these persons a category apart that does not share much with normal children at any stage of their mental growth.I like to conclude that my interest is not enthusiastically philosophical only. I have a great sense of pity for these tragic lives and consequentially a great respect for people like you who have the courage to devote their life to such a noble cause. Thank you so much for your kindness . Bruno