
Autism research on single neurons suggests signaling problems in brain circuits - pseudolus
https://theconversation.com/new-autism-research-on-single-neurons-suggests-signaling-problems-in-brain-circuits-117074
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greenflag
Interesting discussion on twitter regarding the relatively small sample size
(n=15) given the heterogeneity of the underlying condition -
[https://twitter.com/WiringTheBrain/status/112928482114080358...](https://twitter.com/WiringTheBrain/status/1129284821140803584)

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mar77i
Finding an indicative difference in a tiny, yet random sample appears to have
accomplished more than the guy yelling "small sample size" \- and, which I
find ironic - "waste!" here. They managed to add a tiny bit of contrast to a
picture that's totally blank, and provide 15 pixels of data, please explain
how that's supposed to be worthless?

By the same logic, if I manage to cure an extremely rare type of cancer under
certain circumstances when it's detected early on, I get fired for having too
little success? I mean, what? Seriously?

By all means, prove them wrong, but stop the yelling. That's even more
worthless than any form of pioneering research.

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lal
It hasn't been established whether this has "accomplished" anything at all or
if it's a false positive. That's what's being discussed in the Twitter thread.

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RhodesianHunter
It has opened an avenue for future research that has better than "monkeys
throwing darts" odds, which is an accomplishment.

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bufferoverflow
Autism (or maybe some forms of it) are now linked to gut problems /
inflammation and can be treated with fecal transplants:

University of Arizona experimental study on 18 children:

[https://microbiomejournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186...](https://microbiomejournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40168-016-0225-7)

A very successful treatment of one child:

[https://youtu.be/KRXl_N0OtX4?t=1477](https://youtu.be/KRXl_N0OtX4?t=1477)

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ThrustVectoring
One complicating factor with a lot of these studies is how "autism symptoms"
and the like are measured. Specifically, they measure something like "how much
distress is the autistic individual under compared to how much they can
handle". High level of distress leads to meltdowns, inability to handle
outside behavioral demands, etc, and shows up as higher autism symptom load.

So this study is, IMO, much less about "gut problems cause autism", and I
highly doubt that these individuals get any less autistic. A fairer
characterization is "autistic people with gastrointestinal distress are less
able to deal with things in general, and fixing the GI distress allows them to
handle social demands better".

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anoncake
That depends on what Autism is/how we define it.

I think there may be people whose brain works like an autistic brain in that
the things that specifically distress autists also distress them. But they are
good enough at tolerating distress that they don't actually show the symptoms
of autism.

If people like that exist and we don't consider them autistic, then improving
someone's ability to deal with distress can indeed reduce or even cure autism.

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throwaway848483
Unrelated : In this article double f, like in "affected" are rendered with the
second f bigger than the first (both on firefox and chromium). I looked inside
the css editor and the font seems to be ("Libre Baskerville", Georgia, Times,
"Times New Roman", serif).

I guess this is probably to improve readability but it doesn't do this for
other pairs of repeated letters.

It kind of sent me into a rabbit hole as I thought font were defined for a
single letter only. I did a quick search and I couldn't find the rules which
defined fonts. Is there some pattern matching for sequence of characters ?
More importantly, when trying a new font how do we know that there aren't
special cases like this ugly "ff" ?

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Arnavion
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typographic_ligature](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typographic_ligature)

Searching for "fonts ligatures" will give you more reading material.

>I guess this is probably to improve readability but it doesn't do this for
other pairs of repeated letters.

Ligatures are mostly a style thing from the days of handwriting that got
brought forward into print.

>Is there some pattern matching for sequence of characters ?

Yes, combinations are pre-defined in the font and picked up the renderer. In
this particular case, LibreBaskerville defines a combination of two f's to
render the first f in a slightly smaller size.

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jdefelice
You can also control this with CSS using font-variant-ligatures.

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spraak
Dr Exley of Keele University has been studying the role of aluminum in autism.

> Levels of mercury, lead, and aluminum in the hair of autistic children are
> higher than controls. Environmental exposure to these toxic heavy metals, at
> key times in development, may play a causal role in autism.

"Assessment of Hair Aluminum, Lead, and Mercury in a Sample of Autistic
Egyptian Children: Environmental Risk Factors of Heavy Metals in Autism"

[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4609793/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4609793/)

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dazfuller
Since when was autism classified as a disease?

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dogma1138
Since always? It’s a developmental disorder, and a disease is “a disorder of
structure or function in a human, animal, or plant, especially one that
produces specific symptoms or that affects a specific location and is not
simply a direct result of physical injury.”

Pretty much every medical body would list it under its classification of
illnesses.

e.g. NHS: [https://www.nhsinform.scot/illnesses-and-conditions/brain-
ne...](https://www.nhsinform.scot/illnesses-and-conditions/brain-nerves-and-
spinal-cord/autistic-spectrum-disorder-asd)

~~~
dazfuller
With 2 kids and a partner diagnosed as being autistic, it's a massive trigger
for me.

Seen so many health professionals because of my family, not one has ever
referred to it as a disease.

Just to elaborate further.

Child 1 - ASD/ADHD Child 2 - ASD/SPD possibly PDA Partner - ASD/SPD

They're all different and display different characteristics,have differing
needs and have different mental health issues. Child 1 is about 2 years behind
their peers educationally and socially, Child 2 is on par.

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wswkb
The fact that it's a massive trigger for someone doesn't mean it's less of a
disease. Maybe the problem is the negativity the word "disease" brings, but
someone who suffers autism is a diseased person.

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dazfuller
Or not

[https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/autism/what-is-
autism/](https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/autism/what-is-autism/)

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justforyou
Features are not bugs.

