Comments on: Brain response to facial expression in autistic individuals and their siblings https://gregladen.com/blog/2011/07/13/brain-response-to-facial-expre/ Sat, 28 Nov 2020 18:28:19 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.6 By: HFA person https://gregladen.com/blog/2011/07/13/brain-response-to-facial-expre/#comment-505222 Mon, 20 May 2013 18:21:29 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2011/07/13/brain-response-to-facial-expre/#comment-505222 That’s very familiar. I’m on the ASD spectrum too. When I look at people’s faces, I don’t mirror their expressions but neurotypicals tend to do it. It’s not that I can’t see but rather I just don’t feel it so I won’t mirror it.

We can’t conclude that ASD is entirely genetic. It’s quite likely that siblings share the same environmental risk factors too.

]]> By: that lung https://gregladen.com/blog/2011/07/13/brain-response-to-facial-expre/#comment-505221 Fri, 14 Oct 2011 08:10:16 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2011/07/13/brain-response-to-facial-expre/#comment-505221 “One of the known symptoms of Autism is for those with the disorder to have difficulty reading facial expressions of other people. A recent study has suggested, however that siblings of those with Autism show a similar lack of activity in the area of the brain that controls empathy. Researchers suggest that this may be a helpful biomarker for identifying the cause of Autism.

Just this month, Science Daily published an article about this study. Dr. Michael Spencer led this study and says: â??The findings provide a springboard to investigate what specific genes are associated with this biomarker. The brainâ??s response to facial emotion could be a fundamental building block in causing autism and its associated difficulties.â?

Previously, studies have shown that the brains of children with Autism process facial expressions differently than the â??normalâ?? brain. This study was the first time that the connection between Autistic children and their siblings. Both show a lack of activity when reading othersâ?? facial expressions. The siblings had no signs of Autism or Aspergerâ??s Syndrome, however they had a lower activity in the areas of the brain that enables us to read facial expressions and controls empathy than those who had no familial connection to Autism.

The only control that differed in the study was whether the non-Autism sibling had a sibling with Autism, it can possibly indicate that the differences can be due to the gene that causes the child to be at a genetic risk for Autism. How is it though, that only one sibling has Autism and the other doesnâ??t? It is known that in a family that has one child with Autism, the likelihood of having another child with Autism is 20x higher. However what about these familiesâ?? differed to where one child did not develop Autism?”

]]> By: magster2 https://gregladen.com/blog/2011/07/13/brain-response-to-facial-expre/#comment-505220 Tue, 19 Jul 2011 18:55:28 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2011/07/13/brain-response-to-facial-expre/#comment-505220 In my family we have what I call “the curse of the firstborn”, a pattern which appears to be in its third generation. Two children are born, the first child has issues ranging from anxiety (including OCD) to ADHD to depression (including bipolar) to socialization difficulties to pervasive developmental disorder, and the second child is fine (in fact, often very successful by most people’s standards). (The pattern has only been broken once, sadly by a child who died of a heart defect.) deadalus2u, I’d love to hear more about the correlation with maternal stress in utero and/or any correlations with birth order.

]]> By: june conway beeby https://gregladen.com/blog/2011/07/13/brain-response-to-facial-expre/#comment-505219 Sat, 16 Jul 2011 22:43:18 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2011/07/13/brain-response-to-facial-expre/#comment-505219 I’m always pleased to find scientific research on mental illnesses. My sense(personal)is that they are all somehow related to genetics. Case in point: Three of my offspring suffer from mental illnesses i.e., a)schizophrenia,(who killed himself when he was 20-years-old)and b)severe manic depression and c)autism. I also have aunts who suffered from mental illnesses, and a sibling who was ill as well but diagnoses were not easy to come by back then. And people were not aware that they were medical illness of the brain that could run in families.

I look forward to science uncovering the causes and cures for serious mental illnesses to rid my descendants of the awful fear we now must live with.

Thank you for the work you do.

]]> By: khan https://gregladen.com/blog/2011/07/13/brain-response-to-facial-expre/#comment-505218 Fri, 15 Jul 2011 00:37:19 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2011/07/13/brain-response-to-facial-expre/#comment-505218 Totally anecdotal: Am on spectrum (can’t read expression or emotion for shit); seem to have inherited it from Father.

]]> By: Greg Laden https://gregladen.com/blog/2011/07/13/brain-response-to-facial-expre/#comment-505217 Thu, 14 Jul 2011 17:43:58 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2011/07/13/brain-response-to-facial-expre/#comment-505217 Harold, not to speak for Vince, but … I think a lot of people believe that parents want to blame bad things that happen to their kids on something as a version of wanting to explain it, and in the case of autism, we have the very loud and misguided anti-vax movement which “blames” autism on big pharma, science, and gummit.

I think the ‘blame’ – ‘knowledge’ conflation is common but I agree with you that it is incorrect. Finding out what happened and why something happened and what people ultimately mean when they refer to “blame” are pretty different.

I’ve written a bit about blame and about blame and vaccination, before: http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/blame/

]]> By: Harold L Doherty https://gregladen.com/blog/2011/07/13/brain-response-to-facial-expre/#comment-505216 Thu, 14 Jul 2011 16:38:24 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2011/07/13/brain-response-to-facial-expre/#comment-505216 “Parents want to blame something for autism.”

Really? As the parent of an autistic son I would like to know what caused his autism. Does that mean I want to find something to blame?

Is your comment based on any rigorous studies that have been done which establish that parents want to blame something for autism or is it just your personal belief?

]]> By: Greg Laden https://gregladen.com/blog/2011/07/13/brain-response-to-facial-expre/#comment-505215 Thu, 14 Jul 2011 15:01:03 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2011/07/13/brain-response-to-facial-expre/#comment-505215 Neuroskeptic! Thanks for that link. I had seen your post but while writing mine could not remember where. Now I will revise and include.

]]> By: Neuroskeptic https://gregladen.com/blog/2011/07/13/brain-response-to-facial-expre/#comment-505214 Thu, 14 Jul 2011 09:37:08 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2011/07/13/brain-response-to-facial-expre/#comment-505214 Good post. See also my post on this paper, and the nice discussion in the comments about just what an “endophenotype” is: http://neuroskeptic.blogspot.com/2011/07/brain-is-not-made-of-dna.html

]]> By: daedalus2u https://gregladen.com/blog/2011/07/13/brain-response-to-facial-expre/#comment-505213 Thu, 14 Jul 2011 03:37:31 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2011/07/13/brain-response-to-facial-expre/#comment-505213 Vince, the differences occur in utero. Parenting style is not the cause.

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