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Special Needs Research and News

Gainesville Music Therapy parents receive frequent e-mails with the articles of interest to the special needs community, including research on Autism, Down Syndrome, ADHD, etc.; conferences and trainings being offered in the local area; and information on music therapy practice. If you would like to receive these articles, and/or our monthly newsletter by e-mail, please e-mail us to join the mailing list.

 

Monday, May 29, 2006

Autism linked to aberrant chromosomes

Source: scenta


New research has revealed a connection between aberrant chromosomes and autism.


Eight children with four different disorders with autistic features were studied by the Sahlgrenska Academy at Göteborg University in Sweden and all had an extra chromosome, one damaged chromosome or pieces of chromosomes missing in their genes.


The children in the study had Asperger’s syndrome, infantile autism, ADHD, and Rett’s syndrome.


These are so-called autism spectrum disorders that all involve some form of contact disturbance.


The cause of these diseases is not known.


"Both heredity and environment play a role," said researcher Tonnie Johannesson.


"I believe it’s a matter of several genes working together, and if one chromosome is damaged, there may be genes in that chromosome that have been damaged or are missing."


It is not known precisely which genes cause the disorders, but the study provides an indication of where these genes might be situated.


"It’s as if we haven’t found the needle in the haystack yet, but now we know which haystack to look into," explained Johannesson.


The research shows that two boys with Asperger’s syndrome had nearly identical aberrations in a chromosome - a break on chromosome 17 in almost exactly the same place.


"It is remarkable to find such a similarity between two unrelated patients with the same disorder," added Johannesson.


Following in-depth analysis, Johannesson managed to find the faulty gene in one of the boys.
The study shows that the damaged gene is of importance to the brain, but it is unclear precisely what role it plays in brain development.


Infantile autism is a form of disease that expresses itself during the child’s first year.
The study shows that four unrelated boys who have the disorder all had a small extra chromosome, displaying three chromosomes instead of two on the fifteenth pair.


In a mildly mentally retarded boy diagnosed with ADHD the chromosomes had changed places with each other.


Three of the chromosomes had been switched around, but all the chromosome pieces seemed to be there.


On the other hand, a girl with a disease resembling Rett’s syndrome proved to be lacking a piece of a chromosome in the third pair.


"Genes are presumably the cause of these disorders, but we still don’t know which ones they are," said Johannesson.


Source: scenta
Date Published: May 22, 2006


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US study supports claims of MMR link to autism


The Times
May 29, 2006
By Sam Lister, Health Correspondent


THE safety of the MMR innoculation, the combination vaccine given to young children and widely supported by scientists, will be questioned again this week in a presentation that claims to provide proof of a link to autism.


American researchers say that their study supports the findings of Andrew Wakefield, the discredited gastroenterologist who raised fears that the measles, mumps and rubella injection might be causing autism.

Uptake of the vaccine decreased sharply after Dr Wakefield suggested that MMR should be avoided in favour of single vaccinations. His research, published in The Lancet in 1998, detected traces of the measles virus in the guts of 12 children with autism.


The latest study, led by Arthur Krigsman, of New York University School of Medicine, involved 275 children. Serious intestinal inflammations were found in some of the autistic children and biopsies of gut tissue were performed on 82 of them. Of these, 70 are said to have shown evidence of the measles virus, which so far has been confirmed in 14 cases by more stringent DNA tests.


Steve Walker, assistant professor at Wake Forest University Medical Centre, North Carolina, who analysed the gut samples, said the work mirrored Dr Wakefield’s study. All the children involved were diagnosed with autism and had come to Dr Krigsman and Dr Walker seeking help for symptoms of serious digestive problems for which no explanation could be found.


The research, which is being presented at the International Meeting for Autism Research in Montreal this week, has yet to be published in a scientific journal and subjected to peer review.

Mainstream science has repeatedly examined the theory of a link between MMR and autism and found no evidence to back it. Supporters of the theory are accused of interpreting two biological occurrences as a causative relationship that does not exist.


Uptake of MMR, which was introduced into Britain in 1988, has improved in recent years, but remains as low as 70 per cent in the wake of ongoing questioning of its possible side-effects. The World Health Organisation recommends 95 per cent coverage, and the shortfall has been blamed for contributing to rising rates of measles and mumps in recent years.


A recent analysis of 31 MMR studies by the Cochrane Library, one of the most authoritative sources of evidence-based medicine, showed no credible grounds for claims of serious harm.


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Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Study: Few pediatricians screen kids for autism

Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 05/17/06
HEALTHDAY


Too few pediatricians screen children for autism and autism spectrum disorders (ASD), and a lack of familiarity with screening tools seems to be a major factor, a U.S. study finds.


The study of 255 Maryland and Delaware pediatricians found that 209 (82 percent) said they regularly screen their patients for general developmental delays, but only 20 (8 percent) of them said they regularly screen for ASD.


Of the pediatricians who said they do not routinely screen for ASD, 62 percent said they didn't do it because they weren't familiar with the screening tools.


"Lack of familiarity with ASD screening tools appears to the single greatest barrier to routine screening," study lead author Susan dosReis, of the Johns Hopkins Children's Center Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in Baltimore, said in a prepared statement.


Screening is essential because delays in diagnosis and treatment lead to poorer outcomes in children with developmental disorders.


"This study suggests that current national efforts may not be sufficient to actively promote the use of ASD screening tools in the general pediatric practice," dosReis said. "So it is important to learn what some obstacles might be, and what needs to be done to overcome those barriers."
She and her colleagues noted that previous research suggests that many pediatricians don't feel well-trained in general developmental and behavioral issues.


The study appeared in a May 11 supplement of the April issue of the Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics.


The researchers said their findings cannot be generalized beyond Delaware and Maryland because there may be variations in screening practices in different regions of the United States.


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Autism Speaks and GRASP to Exchange “Articles of Understanding"

Joint release...

Two Leading Autism Organizations Will Post Articles Online in an Effort to Foster a Respectful and Productive Dialogue About Their Differing Viewpoints

(May 17, 2006) -- Autism Speaks and GRASP (the Global Regional Aspergers Partnership) will pen articles for each other's web sites in an effort to create a substantive and mutually respectful dialogue about why they differ on using the word “cure” in relation to autism, the two organizations announced today. The articles, which will be written by Autism Speaks Senior Vice President Alison Tepper Singer and GRASP Executive Director Michael John Carley, will appear online later this spring and present the organizations' differing viewpoints on this specific issue. Autism Speaks, a non-profit organization dedicated to increasing awareness of autism and raising money to fund autism research, uses the term "cure" in its discussions about autism spectrum disorders while GRASP, the largest organization of adults diagnosed along the autism spectrum, does not.

About GRASP

GRASP, the Global and Regional Asperger Syndrome Partnership, is an educational and advocacy organization run by and for adult individuals on the autism spectrum. As per their bylaws, 50% of their Board of Directors, 100% of their Advisory Board, and the Executive Director must be diagnosed along the spectrum with either Asperger Syndrome, PDD, or Autism. Begun in 2003, GRASP planned on expanding nationally by its 7th year, but due to the immense need for shared experience did so by its second year. GRASP already has 12 regional networks stretching from Iowa and Virginia to CT, with many more planned; performing outreach, advocacy, and intervention through the peer-run support networks it runs. It is the largest incorporated organization in the world comprised of adults on the autism spectrum. To learn more about GRASP, visit www.grasp.org.

About Autism Speaks

Autism Speaks is dedicated to increasing awareness of the growing autism epidemic and to raising money to fund scientists who are searching for a cure. It was founded in February 2005 by Suzanne and Bob Wright. Bob Wright is Vice Chairman and Executive Officer, General Electric, and Chairman and CEO, NBC Universal. Autism Speaks and the National Alliance for Autism Research (NAAR) recently combined operations, bringing together two of the leading organizations dedicated to accelerating and funding biomedical research into the causes, prevention, treatments and cure for autism spectrum disorders; to increasing awareness of the nation’s fastest growing developmental disorder; and to advocating for the needs of affected families. To learn more about Autism Speaks, please visit www.autismspeaks.org


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Monday, May 15, 2006

Music Therapy Answer to a Wide Range of Ills

Published: Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Staff Reporter


MUSIC therapy can be used to help children and adults with a wide range of needs arising from causes including learning difficulties, mental and physical illness, stress and terminal illness, a resource person said yesterday.


“Emotional, cognitive and developmental needs can be addressed through interactive music making within a secure relationship offered by the music therapist,” Jacqueline Robarts from Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy Centre, UK, explained.


A senior lecturer and therapist at the Centre in North London where over 200 children and adults receive music therapy weekly, Robarts was speaking at the First Annual International Forum on Children with Special Needs, which concluded yesterday.


The Nordoff-Robbins approach to music therapy, developed from the pioneering work of Paul Nordoff and Clive Robbins in the 1950 and 60s, is grounded in the belief that everyone can respond to music, no matter how ill or disabled.


The unique qualities of music as therapy can enhance communication, support change, and enable people to live more resourcefully and creatively.


As an example of a child who has benefited from music therapy, she cited the case of Lisa, a five-year old girl with Down’s syndrome, who used to create havoc at home by her hyperactive behaviour, uncontrollable temper tantrums and inability to respond to her parents.


“In music therapy Lisa found a place where her energy and ability can be channelled into something purposeful and creative.”


Lisa became motivated to listen and respond to the music both in singing and playing, and this in turn helped her to develop her concentration and language skills.


Her moods can be expressed through the improvised music, and she discovers a new way of communicating her feelings. “Over a period of three years, she developed self-confidence and self-control, and an ability to make positive relationships,” Robarts said.


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CBS News- 3 part series on autism starting 5/15

From the CBS News website -http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/1998/08/01/eveningnews/main15214.shtml

(CBS) Here's a look at one of the stories we're working on for Monday'sbroadcast:

Steve Hartman begins a three part series exploring autism. Thefrustrations -- and surprising successes -- for sufferers of thispuzzling disorder. The story on Monday's CBS Evening News..


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Jacksonville Behavior Presentation- June 13

Parent Night

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Registration 5:30-6:00 PM

Presentation 6:00-8:00 PM

Wyndham Jacksonville Riverwalk Hotel

(formerly the Radisson Riverwalk Hotel)

1515 Prudential Drive

Jacksonville, FL 32207

Please Listen…My Behavior is "Talking"

Presented by Pamelazita Buschbacher, Ed.D. CCC-SLP

Who should attend?

Parents of prekindergarten age children

Parents of elementary age children

Parents of children with significant disabilities

Preschool and elementary children sometimes engage in behaviors at home, at school and in the community that can be very challenging for parents. This two-hour presentation will discuss how children use behaviors as a way of communicating and will provide parents with well-researched prevention and skill-building strategies to encourage their children's use of positive social behaviors.

Contact Barbara Bennett, Prekindergarten Disabilities, 348-7866 to register or if you have questions, require an accommodation, or need information in an alternate format.

Sponsored By: Duval County Public Schools, FDLRS, SEDNET


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Online resources for parents with special needs children

New Parent Guide to IDEA 2004

The National Center for Learning Disabilities is pleased to announce the release of its new Parent Guide to IDEA 2004. The Parent Guide - the first comprehensive guide to important changes made by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 - uses accessible language to help parents recognize their rights and opportunities in the special education process. One of the unique elements is a series of audio clips that feature parents who share their experiences on a specific topic and provide advice and support. The guide's 11 chapters cover how to request an evaluation, determine eligibility, and develop an Individualized Education Program (IEP), among other topics.

The free guide is available at http://ga3.org/ct/6pqcohE1aRWP/ .


NCLD launches Online Parent Center


Get Ready to Read! is a program of the National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD). NCLD has just launched an exciting new resource for parents of children with learning disabilities, or who suspect that their child may have learning disabilities. The new online Parent Center provides parents with the tools and up-to-date information needed to be effective advocates for their children. Parents will be able to ensure their children receive the services and support they need in order to succeed in school.
For more information, go to: www.ld.org/parents


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Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Notes on the brain: Does music make you smarter?

BY ENRIQUE FERNANDEZ
Knight Ridder Newspapers


Parents who play Mozart for a baby - or a pregnant belly - with the long-range hope of a letter of acceptance to Harvard should know their project is futile. On the other hand, exposing a child to great music - as a listener and as a player - will eventually pay off in increased smarts.


''Nothing activates as many areas of the brain as music,'' researcher Donald A. Hodges recently told an audience of University of Miami students and faculty.


On the screen above him, Hodges showed scans of the brain in the midst of musical activity. Both hemispheres were lit up, in Hodges' words, ``like a pinball machine.''


Hodges is Covington Distinguished Professor of Music Education and director of the Music Research Institute at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He was on campus as part of the Stamps Family Distinguished Visitors Series to share his findings on the relation of music to the brain.


And to answer a question that has been floating around both scholarly and popular culture for a while: Does music make you smarter?


"The answer is `no' in a superficial sense," Hodges said. In 1993, experimenters claimed that listening to a Mozart sonata would make your IQ increase by eight points. Subsequent work, Hodges explained, proved that such listening would sharpen a subject's spatial-temporal relationships momentarily. After a short while, the subject would go back to being just smart as before. Or dumb.


But, he explained, a rich environment makes a difference: ``The brain: Use it or lose it. The more education you have, the more the interconnections in the brain. Music changes the brain.''
Admitting that this research moves at a slow pace - it is prohibitively expensive - Hodges outlined some major findings:


_Disproving earlier assumptions that musical activity takes place in the right hemisphere of the brain, the activity occurs with equal vigor in the left - or rational - hemisphere. Music is an emotional and intellectual activity that engages all the brain. Almost.


_During performance, there is almost no activity in the frontal lobe, where conscious thought takes place. When Yo-Yo Ma is playing his cello in concert he's not thinking, Hodges argued. All the thought took place earlier and if he were to think now it would impede his playing. He is simply performing, much like a highly trained athlete.


_''Music is always a physical activity,'' Hodges said. ''Musicians are small-muscle athletes.'' And not just the performer. A listener sitting still in a classical concert hall is having the area of the brain that controls motion stimulated. Thus, that convention - not moving during classical performances - is unnatural.


Hodges learned how the brain reacts to music by making musicians perform in the most difficult conditions. Theresa Lesiuk, who teaches music therapy at University of Miami, was one of Hodges' subjects when they were both working in San Antonio. In her campus office, she recalls the experiments.


``I had to lie down in a gurney with an IV of radioactive material in me. They put a mask over my face and I was blindfolded. Then my head was placed in a tube.''


And on a keyboard she had to play Bach. A PET scan picked up the radioactive material and showed which areas of the brain were activated. Images from those scans were what Hodges showed at his University of Miami lectures.


"We had to do this several times and the IV tube kept getting caught as I played. `Ow!'"


''We have to know what the brain is doing,'' says Shannon de L'Etoile, who heads the music therapy program at the University of Miami. "Hodges' work is our bread and butter.''


De L'Etoile explains that a person with brain damage from a stroke may not be able to speak, but can sing because the area that controls music is not damaged. A therapist will get the patient to sing a phrase, then change it to spoken language with an exaggerated rhythm, and finally to natural language. ''We are rerouting through the healthy part of the brain,'' de L'Etoile explains.


''The spinal chord reacts immediately to rhythm,'' says de L'Etoile, who says that such therapy can be used with Parkinson's patients.


And, researchers have learned that autistic children are capable of reproducing patterns of music, which a therapist can translate to language and to unlock the social interactions autism prevents.


Lesiuk, whose work focuses more on psychotherapy, is researching the high burnout rate of computer system designers and how music can help. In therapeutic situations, music can help a patient reflect on the lyrics of a song or express their feelings. And not just happy feelings - music can help unblock anger.


At University of Miami, Hodges had said that ''music makes you smarter because it helps you understand yourself as a human being and your relationship to the world.'' Echoing him, Lesiuk believes that ``music can help us unblock the search for our inner self.''


Except that Hodges goes beyond the individual search. Waiting at the University of Miami for a ride to the airport and his next lecture destination, the researcher explained how ``like mathematics, music is a necessary way of understanding the universe.''


Dismissing notions that music is just ''ear candy,'' Hodges said that ``the fetus has the ears working already and a newborn can pick out the mother's voice - for the baby, it is music.''
His research asks the question: What in the brain allows this bonding? ''The brain is a rhythmic pattern detector,'' Hodges said, repeating a statement he had made at his lecture.


Hodges explained that ''contemplative music'' - classical composers like Bach - was actually an exception. ''The vast majority of music is functional music,'' he said.


To illustrate his point, he searched in his luggage for a recording of postal workers in Ghana canceling stamps, ''the most boring, repetitive work,'' he explained. The recording was, as Hodges' promised, mind-blowing.


The workers chanted to the precise beats and counterbeats of their hitting the envelopes. The gorgeous harmonic chanting and the complex polyrhythms were hypnotic - all it needed was one of those DJs who specialize in remixing world music to be a hip new dance groove.
''No music exists asocially,'' Hodges asserted.


His research into the relation of music to the brain has convinced Hodges that music is ''absolutely pervasive in the human condition.'' Time and again, Hodges as well as the University of Miami music therapy professors insisted that all humans are musical, though some are more sophisticated than others.


''Conductors can detect errors in melody, harmony and rhythm,'' Hodges said in his lecture. And Lesiuk told of musicians who can identify, just from reading a music score, passages likely to make a listener's arm-hair stand on end.


Nonetheless, Hodges insisted, all humans are musical, regardless of training. Or IQ. ''From the least to the most intelligent, everyone can have a meaningful music experience,'' he said.
Knight Ridder correspondent Jacob Goldstein contributed to this report.


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Immune system, blood altered in autism

Sunday May 07, 2006 (0136 PST)

ISLAMABAD: Children with autism show different immune system responses from children without the condition, and these might be measured in the blood for a possible screening test, U.S. researchers reported on Thursday.


Two studies presented to a conference on autism help support other research that suggests subtle differences in the immune function of children with autism.


Autism is a brain disorder usually seen as children become toddlers. Affecting an estimated two to five out of every 1,000 children, autism has a spectrum of symptoms that include difficulty with social interaction and repetitive behaviors.


No one knows what causes autism, although experts have largely rejected purported links with childhood vaccines.


Scientists at the 4th International Meeting for Autism Research in Boston presented studies looking at the blood of children with autism.


Judy Van de Water of the University of California, Davis, and colleagues separated immune cells from 30 children with autism and 26 non-autistic children aged 2 to 5. They mixed in toxins and bacteria.


In response to bacteria, the researchers saw lower levels of immune signaling proteins called cytokines in the group with autism. These children also had irregular responses to a plant protein, but not to other toxins or to a measles, mumps and rubella vaccine.


"Understanding the biology of autism is crucial to developing better ways to diagnose and treat it," Van de Water said in a statement.


A second team at the same center took blood samples from 70 children aged 4 to 6 with autism and from 35 other children.


The children with autism had 20 percent more immune system cells called B cells and 40 percent more natural killer cells.


There also seemed to be differences in other proteins in the blood, although the researchers are still sifting through the data.


"From these results we think it is highly likely that there are differences we can detect in blood samples that will be predictive of the disorder, though we are still some years away from having an actual diagnostic blood test for autism," said researcher David Amaral, who led the study.
What good would this do, as there is no cure?


"There is a growing view among experts that not all children with autism are ’doomed to autism’ at birth," Amaral said in a statement.


"It may be that some children have a vulnerability, such as a genetic abnormality, and that something they encounter after being born, perhaps in their environment, triggers the disorder," he added.


"Studying the biological signs of autism could lead to new ways to prevent the disorder from ever occurring. And even if it can’t be prevented, intervening early in life -- ideally shortly after birth -- could greatly improve the lifetime outlook for children with autism."


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Daydream Brain Activity: Autism Clue?

Some Brain Regions in People With Autism Are Inactive During Rest or Daydreaming
By Jennifer Warner WebMD Medical News
Reviewed By Louise Chang, MD on Tuesday, May 09, 2006


May 8, 2006 -- People with autismautism may not daydream like most people do.
A new study suggests that the brain activity found in most people while at rest or "daydreaming" is absent in people with autism.


Researchers say the brain regions normally active while at rest or daydreaming are important for processing emotional and social issues. The lack of this activity in the brains of people with autism may help explain some of the antisocial behavior and emotional problems found in people with the disorder.


Measuring Brain Activity
In the study, which appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans to compare brain activity while at rest in a group of 15 people with autism spectrum disorders (including autism and related conditions such as Asperger's syndrome) and 14 people without autism or related disorders.


Researchers say activity in certain areas of the brain is suppressed while performing mentally demanding tasks, like solving a puzzle. But when a person is at rest or performing nonstimulating tasks, these areas become very active, triggering daydreams and other introspective thoughts.


The scans showed that this type of daydreaming brain activity found in nonaustistic participants was missing in those with autism.


Researchers say these self-directed thoughts are important for processing emotional and social issues. In fact, they found that the more socially impaired the autistic individuals were, the less of this brain activity they had.


The researchers say the results of the study suggest that although some of the emotional and social symptoms found in people with autism seem to be associated with inability of this network to function properly, they cannot say that autism is caused by a neurological abnormality or vice versa.


SOURCE: Kennedy, D. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, online early edition, May 8-12, 2006.


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Time Magazine Features Autism

A note that the next issue of TIME Magazine has extensive coverage of autism, including recent research, statistics, etc. In fact, it’s the magazine’s cover story. This issue will come out May 15, 2006.
Click on the cover to see some of what’s available online from the print version – http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,20060515,00.html

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Thursday, May 04, 2006

Gene May Be Linked to Autism

Wednesday, May 03, 2006
By Miranda Hitti

A new study shows that a certain gene may be involved in autism.
The study, published in Neuron, doesn’t prove that that particular gene -- which is called the Pten gene -- causes autism. Many other genetic factors have also been linked to autism, the study also notes.


The study states that when researchers deleted the Pten gene in certain parts of mice’s brains, those mice showed some autism-like symptoms, including “abnormal social interaction and exaggerated responses to sensory stimuli.”


The Pten gene may be a “potential link to autism,” write the researchers. They included Chang-Hyuk Kwon, PhD, and Luis Parada, PhD, of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas.


Kwon works at the university’s Center for Developmental Biology, which Parada directs. Parada also directs the university’s Kent Waldrep Center for Basic Research on Nerve Growth and Regeneration.


Studying the Gene
The Pten gene suppresses tumors and has been noted in some people with autism, write Kwon and colleagues. People with Pten gene mutations “are prone to tumors,” the researchers write, and may display brain disorders including seizures and mental retardation.


Kwon’s team compared mice without the Pten gene with normal mice. In a university news release, Parada explains that by studying mice lacking the Pten gene, researchers can study specific parts of the brain where the Pten gene is found.


“In diseases where virtually nothing is known, any inroad that gets into at least the right cell or the right biochemical pathway is very important,” Parada says.


Study’s Findings
Compared with normal mice, those lacking the Pten gene were:


Less social Hypersensitive to sensory stimuli, such as a startling noise Less interested in making nests when given nesting material More anxious in 2 out of 3 anxiety tests


Obviously, people don’t make nests and aren’t exactly like mice. However, the researchers saw some parallels between autism and some of the behavior of the mice lacking the Pten gene.


“We found that mutant mice exhibit a distinct pattern of behavioral abnormalities reminiscent of ASD [autism spectrum disorder],” write Kwon and colleagues. The researchers note that they don’t understand exactly what role the Pten gene may play in those behaviors.


Study’s Details
To test sociability, the researchers presented a newcomer mouse and an empty cage to the mice. The normal mice were more interested in the newcomer mouse than the empty cage, but the mutant mice didn’t show the same preference.


In the anxiety tests, the researchers placed mice in an open space, maze, or boxes that were partly dark and partly lighted. The mice without the Pten gene acted more anxious in the open space and lingered longer in the dark part of the box than the other mice.


When the scientists studied the mice’s brains, they found thicker nerve cells and a higher-than-normal number of connections to other nerve cells in the brains of the mice lacking the Pten gene.


Those brain differences may lead to the sensory overload that people with autism develop, Parada notes in the news release.


The mice without the Pten gene didn’t show any problems with strength or the ability to move, the study also shows.


By Miranda Hitti, reviewed by Louise Chang, MD


SOURCES: Kwon, C. Neuron, May 4, 2006; vol 50: pp 1-12. News release, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.


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Tuesday, May 02, 2006

Conference: All Aboard the I & R Express

Are you the parent or teacher of a child with special needs? Do you
feel like you’re on a journey alone touring the rough terrain of the
land of information? You’re not alone. Don’t miss this exciting
trip! This train has well informed conductors on board ready and
willing to make your trip a successful one. Tickets are FREE!


Note: This train does not actually move - you do!

First Stop:
Information and Resources Conference
For families, teachers, and caregivers of
children with special needs and those who work with them


ARC Marion
2800 SE Maricamp Rd.
Ocala, FL 34471
352-387-2210


Saturday, May 6, 2006
Time of Arrival and Departure:
8:00 am - 3:00 pm


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