Keychain A Day

Day 89

I'm currently reading an article, "Autism's First Child," in The Atlantic about Donald Triplett, who was the first child diagnosed with autism (1943). He is currently 77, lives in Forest, Mississippi in his own house, and golfs everyday. For the next week or so, I'm going to discuss some of the article's main issues, which primarily deal with our society and autism in adulthood. Here is one interesting quote that I've come across so far:

"We can dispense with the layers of sorrow, and interpret autism as but one more wrinkle in the fabric of humanity. Practically speaking, this does not mean pretending that adults with autism do not need help. But it does mean replacing pity toward them with ambition for them. The key to this view is a recognition that 'they' are part of 'us,' so that those who don't have autism are actively rooting for those who do" (p. 81).

Day 87

Day 86

According to Not Even Wrong: Adventures in Autism, people with autism are susceptible to a variety of neurological phenomena, such as synaesthesia (two or more senses that are connected), Epilepsy, Tourette's, and perfect musical pitch. For example, people with autism with word-color associative brains have been placed in PET chambers, where they listened to a series of words. Even though there were no visual cues, the language and visual centers of their brain lit up, which suggests a connection between the two areas.

Why does this not happen to everyone?

"In the first two years of life, the human brain forms neural connections at a furious rate; many of the neural pathways are useless or irrelevant, products of the bewildering flood of data coming into an infant brain at the tremendous rate of physical growth inside the cranium. Between the ages of two and three, the number of neurons in the brain shrink. As useful pathways are established 'neural pruning' disposes of redundant and illogical ones - including neural pathways connecting what should be disparate senses. Before pruning, we may all be synaesthetic. In synaesthesia, and in other phenomena such as perfect pitch and Tourette's, some of this neural pruning might not be occurring"
(2004, p. 138).

Day 89

Day 87

Day 86

Day 85

Day 84

Day 83

Day 82

Day 81

Day 80