They often avoid people, they often understand the feelings of others. Autistic people are different. But how, exactly? Researchers worldwide are searching for the reasons of the disturbance and to ask the question: What exactly is autism?
Stephen Wiltshire: he Has seen something once, after he draws it down to the smallest Detail
When the sun is shining, remains a John in the room. It bothers him, when everything sparkles and reflects. It bothers him if it is loud, or a Stranger sitting next to him on the Bus. John is autistic. “He can’t write, not speak and not understand everything,” says Monika Scheele Knight, John’s mother. “You can say that he is like a one – or two-year-old child.”
When John was three years old, found Doctors with him early infantile autism. People with this autism-Form develop hardly any Gestures and facial Expressions and have problems to understand feelings. Many hold on obsessively to the same, recurring rituals, a set of Paths or daily routines.
Rainer Döhle is autistic. He was already a grown-up, as his Asperger’s syndrome was found – a Form of autism that is not associated with linguistic and intellectual impairments. “But in my testimony was always: He does not have access to the class community,” he says. “I just never understood how friendship works, and was always glad if you left me alone and I was able to read.” The diagnosis of “Asperger’s syndrome” was for him a great relief – finally there was an explanation for the difficulties in dealing with other people. Today, Rainer Döhle sits on the Board of Aspies e. V., the largest German self-help Association for people with autism. He works as a Translator and is the author of Wikipedia. “I have a high talent and special interests in the field of geography and history. Sometimes I write for hours, lists of rulers, or the main cities. But in the meantime, can I use this in a constructive way.”
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Help for autistic people
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Help for autistic people
From the gifted to the mentally impaired
While some people with autism never learn to speak, others very early in your chosen language. The a are clumsy motor, the other draw for hours – there are the mentally disabled people with autism, as well as the one with the exceptional memory for Numbers. They all show the same, recurring patterns of behavior, and have similar difficulties to interact with others.
While it was thought a few years ago, that it is in the various forms of autism in order to qualitatively different States, each with different causes, we now know from many studies that they differ more gradual.
“Autism is nothing qualitatively different than the Asperger’s syndrome,” says Sven Bölte, head of the research group “autism spectrum disorders” at Stockholm’s Karolinska Institute. “Both autism forms differ rather in the Severity of their symptoms.” Autism researchers therefore speak today of autism spectrum disorders, the result of a different course of neurological development. What people with autism however, atypical is in the development of the brain and nervous system is unclear.
The British author and Autist Daniel Tammet holds with 22.514 Set the European record in the rote Recitation of the number Pi
An Extreme version of the male brain?
From brain scans, for example, people know that people with autism show less activity in brain regions for the processing of emotions and speech is responsible, or for the memory of faces. There is a stronger activity where objects are processed and the Details of a system are detected.
The British autism researcher Simon Baron-Cohen believes that autistic people have an Extreme version of the male brain. In a study, he had measured in the amniotic fluid of Pregnant women in the mirror of the so-called prenatal testosterone influence on the brain development. “When we surveyed after the birth of the children, we found: the higher the level of prenatal testosterone, the more the children showed later, autistic traits – and the more interest for systems.”
In the movie “Rain Man” plays Dustin Hoffman’s autistic Raymond
The brains of autistic people differ from typical brains in addition, by a different distribution of Docking sites for the neurotransmitters dopamine and Serotonin – the play in the control of anxiety and Motivation have a role. Studies at the University of Freiburg show that the communication between neurons is disrupted in the brains of autistic people and also genes and gene mutations have been discovered in connection with autism.
The explain, however, often only some of the autistic symptoms, for example, an impaired language ability. They appear only in a few persons studied or to be found also in healthy people or in the case of non-autistic people with mental retardation, attention deficit disorder or epilepsy.
Environmental factors that influence autism risk
Probably it is so, explains Sven Bölte, that in addition to genetics, other factors play in the development of autism is a role. “In a Danish study, the connection between autism and viral infections in pregnancy was investigated. In the process, it has been found that the autism risk for the child of a is increased to two percent, if the mother had during pregnancy such infection.”
Also, certain medications taken during pregnancy, complications at birth, and even environmental toxins or air pollution are possible risk factors for autism. However, “These factors are not equally at risk. The emergence of autism can be a fairly complex interplay.”
Autism diagnosis remains subjective
What is autism, decide a psychiatrist and neurologist, therefore, is still primarily on the basis of the observable behavior: the Same, recurring behaviors, problems in social interaction. It’s a subjective evaluation. Even more: the more complex the image, the geneticists, epidemiologists, and neuroscientists of autism to draw, the more the criteria for what is autism become blurred and what is not.
“At the Moment we are watching a ‘Fraying’. We do not know Where is the end of the spectrum?”, criticized Inge Kamp-Becker, Director of child and adolescent psychiatry at the University of Marburg. “Many studies show, however, that autism is more of a feature, that there are autistic traits found in the normal population, and much more along with other Disorders. But what exactly is autism, which is increasingly unclear.”
Autistic people often have problems to get in contact with other people
Diagnostically, the line is drawn between healthy and sick mostly, where autistic behavior causes someone to not be able to fulfill everyday tasks independently, and where help is needed.
The border, however, is fluent. And also in autism research, says Sven Bölte, the question remains – disease-or trait – for the time being, undecided: “There is nothing to say that all people vary in their social skills. And if we get in an area of very low a distinct social behavior, we are in the area of autism. On the other hand, the people are very communicative and social. It is not unthinkable that you get there.”
But? “Many researchers – and I – are not sure whether there is not, however, this Shift, if the development in autism differs, however, qualitatively different from other disorders and from a typical neural development. I’ve changed my mind since also 20 to 30 Times, because it’s just difficult.”