Autism Speaks carefully about vaccines

By Rick Colosimo / August 7, 2009 / Comments Off on Autism Speaks carefully about vaccines

I finally had time to read the recent statement/interview with Dr. Geri Dawson, the Chief Science Officer of Autism Speaks. As you know, we’ve discussed this complicated and angst-inducing issue in the past, primarily with respect to the complexities of epidemiology in vaccine research and the nuanced textures of meaning of studies large enough to…

Scientist drawing line on vaccine research

By Rick Colosimo / July 1, 2009 /

Today, Dr. Eric London, from Autism Speaks/Autism Science Foundation and a co-founder of NAAR (which merged with Autism Speaks), announced that he is resigning from the Scientific Affairs Committee and dissociating himself from Autism Speaks. His statement generally refers to the continuation of vaccine-related research supported by Autism Speaks. This issue is one that is…

Science Corner — Brain structures may affect sociability

By Rick Colosimo / June 22, 2009 / Comments Off on Science Corner — Brain structures may affect sociability

This brief description of an MRI study from Cambridge relates that two areas of the brain may affect sociability by affecting the value of social rewards to a person. They found that the greater the concentration of tissue in the orbitofrontal cortex (the outer strip of the brain just above the eyes), and in the…

Can we use brain signaling to improve ABA?

By Rick Colosimo / March 25, 2009 / Comments Off on Can we use brain signaling to improve ABA?

This article from Wired describes a very interesting development in neuroscience that could be harnessed to improve teaching of autistic children (and, of course, NT children as well). The essence of the discovery is that there are signals, prior to the application of a stimulus (in this case, something to be memorized), that seem to…