did that go the way of "left/right hemisphere controlling different faculties" thing? i'm prolly behind on the neurology
Autism
- Thread starter nomadthethird
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did that go the way of "left/right hemisphere controlling different faculties" thing? i'm prolly behind on the neurology
it was never a scientific theory i dont think. lots of stuff if you google search it, no one seems to know where the myth came from
http://www.snopes.com/science/stats/10percent.asp
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=do-we-really-use-only-10
http://www.snopes.com/science/stats/10percent.asp
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=do-we-really-use-only-10
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Mr. Tea
Let's Talk About Ceps
I heard the "we only use X% of our brains" (usually 10 or 20) was invented by some advertising dude back in the 1930s. It's definitely false, anyway.
http://www.snopes.com/science/stats/10percent.asp
What is interesting is that people who've lost large parts, even the vast majority, of their brain (to a tumour or injury) can eventually regain much of the functionality of they had before. The brain certainly exhibits amazing elasticity. Very good evidence against the idea that all functions are localised within some given cortex and in favour of a globalist model of brain function. (Though that's not to say some functions aren't highly localised - maybe that's true of the more basic ones, while higher cognitive functions are distributed? Guessing my arse off here, of course.)
nomadthethird
more issues than Time mag
Zhao I think you might be right about autism being a sort of metaphor for the 21st century's brand of cognitive dissonance, alongside it being a very real concern (the way schizophrenia and related disorders seemed to have a spike in incidence in the 20th)...but you could also do the same thing with psychiatric diagnoses in general, since we haven't had much of a clue about their organic causes until about 50-80 years ago.
Yeah, Tea, I think that there are definitely localized functions, but unless you were to lose, say, an entire "organ" within your brain, like the nucleus accumbens, the amygdala, etc., your brain will over time make new connections to make up for the lost ones. I just recently saw a show where a guy got shot in the head and survived with the bullet stuck too deep inside to be extracted safely...a couple of days out, he looked like he would never walk again or speak, but a couple of months later, he was back to playing college ball. And talking with no problem.
Yeah, Tea, I think that there are definitely localized functions, but unless you were to lose, say, an entire "organ" within your brain, like the nucleus accumbens, the amygdala, etc., your brain will over time make new connections to make up for the lost ones. I just recently saw a show where a guy got shot in the head and survived with the bullet stuck too deep inside to be extracted safely...a couple of days out, he looked like he would never walk again or speak, but a couple of months later, he was back to playing college ball. And talking with no problem.
no this is mre nonsense like the left right thing, that people still actually use and believe to sell shit.
with autism / aspergers at a basic level you have something called the triad of impairment - this is a pretty crap diagram of it
http://www.nas.org.uk/content/1/c4/54/99/AS.gif
occasionally these things in combination with something like ocd,
ie lack of imagination ( which is the most important part of the triad and governs the others) and if the person has talent ( as autistic people have talents too) can produce a person wth savant skills so maybe ocd+ridgid thought+ literal interpretation+inabilility to communicate verbally and mix socially, might produce a savant but it's rare and overstated in the media, who like everyone would love to turn something difficult to comprehend into a thing of wonder.
Savants are very rare though, life for people with austism and other mental disorders is probably like staring from behind a screen. There are real problems that come from those things in the triad, imagine not being able to communicate, always understanding thins literally, not being able to get jokes, not recognising people you see all the time, or maybe yourself, being stuck in a ridgid framework all the time thats extremely upsetting it it's changed.
Also given that people are all very different, different personalities and experiences, autistic people are very different too, someone shy and quiet with autism will be very different to someone who is the opposite, rather than the otaku stereotype, this should be obvious but it isn't.
with the brain it's thought to be down to disfunctional networking, so in very subtle ways the networks of the brain are very different from 'neurotypical' people. Occassionally autistic ppl have sensitive hearing, synaesthesia etc too.
I don't think it's very helpful to confuse the actual impairments of autism with a philosophical generalisation of what autism might mean, and it's sometimes contradictory that philosophers attempted to do this with schizophrenia in the past, as schizophrenia can be debilitating and tragic sometimes. Sometimes philosophy gets buzz words and theory mixed up with what their ideas actually mean, someone gave a good account of continental philosophy's potential to be hypocritical and elitist when it comes to mental health in another thread.
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nomadthethird
more issues than Time mag
radiation and chromosomal mutation
I have a new hairbrained idea about where the genetic mutations on the chromosome (the ones that are linked to autism) came from.
Ok, I know I have a dozen ideas a day about this. But this one actually makes sense. I think.
My uncle who runs an environmental resource management firm was visiting and we were talking about some work he's been doing. Apparently, in lakes all across NY state and the northeast, there's a layer of sediment that corresponds roughly to the years 1960-1963 that is full of radiation (forget the name of the particle, starts with an "s"). These years correspond to the time that extensive nuclear testing was going on in the U.S. It's also the time when the mothers of our current generation of autistic children were being conceived, and the years when rates of autism began to rise.
It makes sense that radiation levels would be a potential cause of the chromosal mutation that's linked to autism for a few reasons. First, autism rates only started rising slightly in the U.S. in the mid 1960s, and we're the only country that extensively tested nukes. Also, it would take a generation or two for the mutations to cause a dramatic increase in autism incidence, which is what we're seeing now. Also could explain why there's an established correlation between autism rates and higher precipitation rates (radiation is carried in the atmosphere).
I have a new hairbrained idea about where the genetic mutations on the chromosome (the ones that are linked to autism) came from.
Ok, I know I have a dozen ideas a day about this. But this one actually makes sense. I think.
My uncle who runs an environmental resource management firm was visiting and we were talking about some work he's been doing. Apparently, in lakes all across NY state and the northeast, there's a layer of sediment that corresponds roughly to the years 1960-1963 that is full of radiation (forget the name of the particle, starts with an "s"). These years correspond to the time that extensive nuclear testing was going on in the U.S. It's also the time when the mothers of our current generation of autistic children were being conceived, and the years when rates of autism began to rise.
It makes sense that radiation levels would be a potential cause of the chromosal mutation that's linked to autism for a few reasons. First, autism rates only started rising slightly in the U.S. in the mid 1960s, and we're the only country that extensively tested nukes. Also, it would take a generation or two for the mutations to cause a dramatic increase in autism incidence, which is what we're seeing now. Also could explain why there's an established correlation between autism rates and higher precipitation rates (radiation is carried in the atmosphere).
nomadthethird
more issues than Time mag
I'll take my Nobel Prize now please.
nomadthethird
more issues than Time mag
Well, you don't have to convince me that it's stupid, irresponsible, and downright dangerous to glamorize mental illness. But I'm not quite sure which "continental philosophers" you're talking about here, since the only ones who talked a lot about schizophrenia did so in a very particular context, i.e., a clinical setting and in view of an anti-Oedipal post-Freudian shift in treatment strategy. D&G thought Freud overemphasized the centrality of neurotics in the realm of mental illness, and they thought schizophrenics actually had more to teach clinicians about new treatment modalities and even politics. That doesn't mean they "glamorized" mental illness--Guattari was a fully paid and practicing mental health professional. So "elitism" really had nothing to do with his interest in schizophrenia, he was more than willing to dirty his hands with it.
That said, I can think of a lot of people who do exhibit a more detached interest in these things, as if it's a cloak you wear, and people who take a hardline Lacanian anti-medication stance who have absolutely zero medical knowledge or training. This, of course, irritates me to no end.
nomadthethird
more issues than Time mag
Mr. Tea
Let's Talk About Ceps
That's an interesting hypothesis, nomad, but have any particular mutations been linked (convincingly, I mean) with autism?
And how long has the idea of autism been around in the public consciousness - I mean, was it a widely-know disease before 1960? Or 1980, even?
That's interesting about the precipitation thing, though. I also heard that rates of mental illness are higher than average in very windy areas.
I couldn't speak for Lacan, but this sounds a lot like standard Sc*****logist doctrine to me.
And how long has the idea of autism been around in the public consciousness - I mean, was it a widely-know disease before 1960? Or 1980, even?
That's interesting about the precipitation thing, though. I also heard that rates of mental illness are higher than average in very windy areas.
I couldn't speak for Lacan, but this sounds a lot like standard Sc*****logist doctrine to me.
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think you've misunderstood me here.
nomadthethird
more issues than Time mag
Well, I'm thinking the chromosomal regions that are linked to autism are in fact regions that have mutated, probably in part in response to some environmental trigger. From the Science Daily article:
Also, don't forget the sperm mutations they already linked--this passed on a chromosomal mutation to offspring. This symmetrical distribution of mutations among sexes also fits in nicely with a general environmental cause like nuclear radiation, right?
I really want to talk to someone who knows more about this stuff.
Srsly, try talking to a hardcore Lacanian sometime your head will explode from the crazy ... maybe not as bad as a scientologist but ...
and I'm not "generalizing" right now, there's a real tendency among Lacanian practitioners to view medication (getting rid of "symptoms") as an impediment to "real" treatment...i.e. spending the rest of your life being stared at blankly for a couple hours a week, getting billed at $350/hr, insurance not accepted.
Also, don't forget the sperm mutations they already linked--this passed on a chromosomal mutation to offspring. This symmetrical distribution of mutations among sexes also fits in nicely with a general environmental cause like nuclear radiation, right?
I really want to talk to someone who knows more about this stuff.
Srsly, try talking to a hardcore Lacanian sometime your head will explode from the crazy ... maybe not as bad as a scientologist but ...
and I'm not "generalizing" right now, there's a real tendency among Lacanian practitioners to view medication (getting rid of "symptoms") as an impediment to "real" treatment...i.e. spending the rest of your life being stared at blankly for a couple hours a week, getting billed at $350/hr, insurance not accepted.
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Mr. Tea
Let's Talk About Ceps
Fuck, did I do the wrong degree or what?
nomadthethird
more issues than Time mag
Exactly...that's why I switched.
i know G was a practicing psychiatrist (i heard the really touching story about his patients mourning him after his death) -- but parts of Mille Plateux do use the word schizophrenia in a more abstract, philosophical, and possibly "romantic", sense. the "had more to teach us" part you mentioned. i'm no expert on D&G but i think schizophrenia became for them a strategy, MO, and even desired state - "becoming schizophrenic" and all that, in (bad paraphrasing ahead) struggles for freedom against capitalist/fascist mind control.
and back to Autism, i just read this article: What Really Causes Autism?
might be dated compared to the ones in original post... according to this the jury is still out on the causes and genetic versus "epigenetic" debate. there are some good quotes in it though like "if you've met one autism patient, you've met one autism patient".
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Mr. Tea
Let's Talk About Ceps
Nothing to do with autism, but an interesting nuclear test factlet for you: cattle mutilations in the US all occur downwind of nuclear test sites used in the late '40s/early '50s, before the bombs got too big to be tested on the American mainland and they starting using sites in the Pacific. And the tissues removed from the cows - lips, tongue, digestive tract, reproductive organs, udders - are exactly the kind of soft, fast-reproducing tissues that you'd expect to have the greatest take-up of trace heavy elements, and the exactly the tissues you'd look at if you were a radiologist investigating the effects of radioisotopes on animals.