Une étude américaine révèle que les différences de développement observables dans le cerveau des enfants autistes sont, pour certaines, visibles dès l’âge de 6 mois et jusqu’à 2 ans.

Les difficultés de communication et d’interactions sociales des autistes résultent notamment d’un problème d’ordre neurologique. En effet, en comparant le développement cérébral de 92 enfants à 6, 12 et 24 mois ayant de hauts risques d’être autistes, l’équipe dirigée par Joseph Piven (de l’université de Caroline du Nord) a retrouvé des différences dans le développement de la matière blanche.

A deux ans, 28 des enfants observés ont présenté des troubles du spectre autistique (TSA). En reconstruisant en 3D la forme de cette matière blanche, les chercheurs se sont alors aperçus que cette matière qui participe au transport des influx nerveux, s’était développée plus lentement chez eux que chez les autres. Or, si ces travaux ne permettent pas encore de définir un nouvel outil de dépistage des TSA, ils peuvent en revanche aider à les mettre au point, soulignent les chercheurs dans l’American Journal of Psychiatry qui publie leurs travaux.

Dans le même temps, l’équipe de Thomas Bourgeron (Institut Pasteur/CNRS) a publié dans la revue PLoS Genetics les résultats d’une étude qui révèle le rôle d’une protéine localisée sur les synapses, les points de contact entre les neurones, dans les troubles autistiques. Comme le rapporte Sciences et Avenir, cette protéine provoquerait une baisse du nombre de synapses et donc une moins bonne communication entre les neurones. Si la bataille fait rage sur la prise en charge des jeunes autistes, la connaissance de la maladie progresse donc peu à peu et pourrait permettre de répondre enfin à certaines interrogations qui divisent les chercheurs.

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Les chercheurs commencent à cerner les interactions entre gènes et environnement pouvant conduire à l’autisme, ce qui devrait faire avancer la compréhension de ce syndrome complexe de l’enfance, selon des travaux présentés lors d’une conférence internationale à Vancouver.

L’autisme est un trouble très complexe résultant de nombreuses variables qui impliquent des centaines de gènes, a expliqué le Dr Scott Selleck, biologiste moléculaire à l’Université de Pennsylvanie (est des Etats-Unis), lors de la conférence annuelle de l’association américaine pour l’avancement de la science (AAAS).

Ce symposium réunissait quelque 8.000 scientifiques de toutes les disciplines et de plusieurs pays, du 16 au 20 février à Vancouver au Canada.

Le défi est d’identifier les variations génétiques importantes liées à cette déficience mentale ainsi que les facteurs environnementaux clé, et de déterminer comment ils interagissent les uns les autres pour provoquer l’autisme, a poursuivi le Dr Selleck.

De nombreuses études ont déjà révélé que les duplications ou les délétions de groupes de gènes peuvent être liées à un risque accru de ce syndrome, rappelle Scott Selleck.

Il a expliqué que selon ces recherches, les régions du génome affectées par ce phénomène seraient particulièrement sensibles à des substances chimiques présentes dans l’environnement.

Nous devons poursuivre nos efforts dans cette direction pour déterminer si elles (ces substances) altèrent l’expression génétique de certains sujets vulnérables au stade de leur développement, a-t-il dit, ajoutant que cela est vraiment la grande question.

Un autre facteur clé est le moment où cette interaction se produit dans le développement du cerveau de l’enfant, a insisté ce chercheur.

Des études sur des cellules souches neuronales montrent qu’il existe des périodes critiques dans le développement de ces cellules cérébrales immatures, notamment lors de leur division et lorsqu’elles deviennent des neurones ou des cellules gliales.

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Francia, 21 feb, Agencia Infancia Hoy.- Encargado por Roselyne Bachelot-Narquin 04 de abril 2011 para evaluar el impacto de las 30 medidas del autismo desde 2008 hasta 2010 el plan, Valerie Letard presentó su informe el 12 de enero pasado. En este último se detallan a continuación: “la dinámica del plan se agota”, sino “plan de diseño sigue siendo importante y no hay que tener: hay que reiniciar sin embargo, para asegurar la medidas efectivas de aplicación, ampliar y consolidar los logros “. Senador defensores del Norte, entre otras cosas para reactivar el diálogo por la reactivación de “control del grupo científico de la rapidez del comité nacional de discusión y propuestas sobre el autismo y PDD”, que son las asociaciones de las partes interesadas.

Roselyne Bachelot-Narquin confirmó que el primer ministro quería basarse en el informe de Valerie Letard “constituye una base sólida para [...] seguir para mantener el impulso que el plan se inició.” El Ministro de la Solidaridad y Cohesión Social anunció la próxima reunión del Comité Nacional para la reflexión y propuestas sobre el autismo “escuchar [...] las propuestas del informe.” “Sobre esta base, voy a hacer propuestas concretas para el primer ministro”, dijo.

Entre las recomendaciones principales del informe, uno de ellos ya ha surgido: “que el autismo se convierte en nacional de 2012 Gran Causa”. El 20 de diciembre de 2011 en la Asamblea Nacional, Francois Fillon, anunció la concesión de la 2012 National Autism Gran Causa. Para el Primer Ministro, “con la causa nacional, queremos decir [a las personas con autismo y sus familias, ed] de que vamos a luchar contra todas las ideas erróneas y los prejuicios que siempre han rodeado el autismo en nuestro país.” Para el Presidente del Grupo de Estudio Parlamentaria sobre el Autismo, Daniel Fasquelle Gran Causa Nacional es “un signo de una mano de ayuda al Gobierno y las asociaciones de padres. Es una manera de cambiar la mirada de los franceses sobre el autismo. También es una oportunidad para hacer un balance de las medidas adoptadas en los últimos diez años, y especialmente a través de la carretera en comparación con otros países que están muy por delante de nosotros “.

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Se trata de Glenn Mangham, un joven estudiante de 26 años y amante de las novelas de Conan Doyle. “Un chico raro” que no salía de casa y que desde su dormitorio entró en las entrañas de Facebook, rompió todos los sistemas de seguridad y robó los códigos secretos de la red social más poderosa del globo. Un autista, según Daily Mail.
¿Pero, podría realmente una persona como Mangham haber derrumbado el imperio Facebook? Sus acusadores dicen que sí, mientras la defensa del joven lo califica de ‘hacker ético’, pues, afirman, no lo hacía para ganar dinero, sino para demostrar las debilidades de la poderosa red social.
¿Cuándo y cómo pasó?

Entre abril y mayo del año pasado, los ingenieros de Facebook en EE.UU. detectaron una intromisión de alguien en el corazón de sus sistemas más sensibles. Se dieron cuenta de que alguien desde la ciudad de York, en Gran Bretaña, estaba descargando unos códigos secretos que le permitían acceder a toda la información de la red: más de 800 millones de personas al descubierto.

De haber sido así, ¿hubiera sido el fin del imperio Facebook? Según el juez que llevó el caso, sí; ya que robarle información a éstos justo ahora que están por salir a Bolsa, y cuyo valor de mercado se estima que podría llegar a 100.000 millones de dólares, lo habría derrumbado antes de salir a los mercados.
La investigación no demoró en llegar. Intervinieron el FBI y Scotland Yard y se invirtieron miles de dólares para dar con el responsable. Finalmente, y gracias a un error de Glenn, que no borró su pista digital llamada “Rayo Gamma”, la policía le cayó encima.

¿Pero quién es este chico que casi se trae abajo la red social más poderosa del mundo? Aunque usted no lo crea, Glenn Mangham, es un joven programador, sumamente tímido, que apenas salía de su habitación y que sufría del síndrome de Asperger, una variante del autismo que mezcla incapacidad para la relación social con una inteligencia fuera de lo normal: pueden recordar secuencias de miles de imágenes sin equivocarse, realizar complejas operaciones matemáticas instantáneas y sacan matrícula de honor en los estudios. A pesar de poseer estas capacidades, tienen dificultades para relacionarse con otras personas.

La gran paradoja de esta historia es: ¿cómo un chico incapaz de hacer relaciones robaba el código secreto de la mayor red social del planeta? Según Mangham, él empezó su operación entrando en los servidores que contenían información sobre las pruebas a las que se someten quienes quieren trabajar en Facebook. No conforme con eso, Mangham introdujo sus propios programas en esos servidores.

Luego, puenteó los sistemas de seguridad y accedió a la cuenta personal del empleado Stefan Parker, del cual obtuvo sus claves de seguridad. En posesión de esas claves, penetró en el sistema central de correos electrónicos, y de allí, en el llamado ‘phabricator server’, unos ordenadores que contienen la información fundamental de esta empresa de internet.

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Danvers family triumphs, autistic son allowed to skate: MyFoxBOSTON.com

A Danvers mom who just wanted her autistic son to be able to do things the other kids can do is learning that by speaking up, one person can evoke change.

It all started when Lea Irzyk wanted to sign up her autistic son for “Learn to Skate” group skating lessons at the James McVann-Louis O’Keefe Memorial Rink on Lowell Street in Peabody.

“We don’t want to stick out — we don’t want to make Jack feel different from anybody else,” Irzyk told FOX 25′s Heather Hegedus.

Skating seemed to be an outlet Jack exceeded at and enjoyed despite his disability. Special needs experts explain to FOX 25 that it can be difficult for autistic children to break away from regular routines for new activities. They say new environments with lots of noise or people can lead to a sensory overload for autistic children.

That’s why Irzyk was so pleasantly surprised when Jack went for his first skate this winter and immediately asked when he could go skating again.
“I was so shocked and he seemed so happy,” said Irzyk.

But when Irzyk called the city-run rink to ask about the lessons, she also asked the employee if they’d make an exception and allow a parent to accompany Jack on the ice because of his special needs.

The employee told Irzyk sorry, but no exceptions.

“I said, well you realize you’re discriminating against a child with special needs. [The employee] said: ‘I’m sorry – I don’t feel that’s what we’re doing. We can’t make exceptions because then other children would want their parents on the ice as well,’ ” Irzyk said. “I said well basically so what you’re telling me is children with Autism can’t take learn to skate. [The employee] said: ‘well maybe you guys can look into private lessons,’ and that was hard to hear,” said Irzyk.

Irzyk decided to write a “Letter to the Editor” to the Salem Evening News, and from there, the support started pouring in from other parents. Her letter went viral – it circulated on Facebook, and calls came flooding into FOX 25.

Terri Farrell, a parent volunteer with the organization “Autism Speaks” says, unfortunately the Irzyk’s story is not unlike many stories she’s heard from autistic families about their struggles to get people and organizations to make special accommodations for someone with autism.

“That the lack of understanding [from, people who don't know much about Autism] results in the policies that say ‘we can’t have this child in our program’ – when often, the policies might require just a small adjustment – not much at all,” said Farrell.

My FOX Boston

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All morning the sad news spread through the Gold Coast high-rise: Charlie, the boy who had a smile for everyone, had died in a horrible accident, plummeting 46 floors down a trash chute.

“We’re all shocked,” said a woman who has worked for another family in the building for about 20 years. “He was such a sweetheart, he touched everyone because he was so sweet.”

Charlie Manley was 17 and had autism and Down syndrome, authorities say. His father, John F. Manley, has served on the international board of directors of the Special Olympics.

Charlie’s parents noticed he was missing from their home in the 48-story building in the 1500 block of North Astor Street late Monday, police said.

After searching the building and contacting police, the boy’s body was discovered inside the building’s trash compactor just after 11 p.m. He was dead at the scene.

Investigators were still trying to piece together exactly how the teen got there, police spokesman Ron Gaines said this morning. Authorities believe the boy fell from the 46th floor, where he lived with his family, officials said.

Jena, the woman who works for a family in the building, said the trash chutes are about two feet by two feet. “I could fit there,” she said, demonstrating with her hands.

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Glenn Mangham, 26, claimed to be be acting as a security consultant, eager to share with Facebook how he had breached their safeguards. Mangham says he performed the same service for search engine Yahoo. His defense also made claims that the young man shows signs of Asperger’s Syndrome.

Operating from his bedroom in his parents home, Mangham possibly first hacked into the account of a Facebook employee. Reportedly, no private user data was compromised; Mangham instead took “invaluable” intellectual property, which he stored on an external hard drive.

DrJaysLive

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Yet the city of Urville exists only in the mind of French autistic-savant Giles Trehin who has spent 20 years planning out the city in his mind. His drawings garnered such a following online that they were turned into a book.

The 40-year-old artist, from Cagnes sur Mer, near Nice in south-east France, has dedicated his life to the imaginary city, recording every intricate detail.

The artist has even presented his plans for the fictional city to conferences on Autism around the world.

Mr Trehin said: ‘I have been drawing since the age of five. I have always been fascinated by big cities and aeroplanes.

‘Since 1984, I started to be interested by the conception of an imaginary city.

‘I called it Urville – the name comes from “Dumont d’Urville” which is a scientific base in a French territory of the Antarctic.’

According to the Wisconsin Medical Society, Mr Trehin said: ‘It’s in 1984 that the idea of an imaginary city became concrete, during one of my vacation journeys back in New York city. After this trip, I lived in London between 1984 and 1986.’

MailOnline

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Statistics show us that the number of children with autism has been growing every year. As a parent of an autistic child in the Chilliwack School District, the article left me both humbled by the passion and dedication that (EAs) Education assistants like Kathi Friesen pour into our children’s lives on a daily basis, as well as, concerned with the lack in actions and responses brought forward by the school district regarding the accountability and consistency in the education of these brilliant, and yet, far too often misunderstood children.

Any family with an autistic child knows the endless amount of energy it takes to provide their child with care for their basic necessities.

There is an emotional toll that goes with endless worry over their child’s personal safety, societal misconceptions pertaining to their child’s behaviour and patience required as they work through the various skill sets for their child’s development.

It is my hope that the Chilliwack School District will take an equally reasonable amount of care to address concerns raised by parents and teachers in the accountability and consistency of the education of our “special gems”.

It is true that students with autism can succeed socially, behaviourally and academically with the right programs and strategies.

ChilliwackTimes

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Yet now the Bristol boy is a thoughtful, joyful nine-year-old who attends a mainstream school.

Has he grown out of his condition? New research by a prestigious American university claims that not only is this possible, it’s also common.

A new study in the respected journal Pediatrics reports that up to one third of children diagnosed with autism at a young age no longer display symptoms when they are older.

And the behavioural transformation seen in Josh over the past six years has certainly gone beyond the wildest hopes of his parents.

As a toddler, Josh seemed irretrievably trapped inside his own troubled world.

‘We couldn’t have a cot because he would fling himself against it,’ says Josh’s mother, Renitha, 39, a chartered accountant who teaches at Bristol University.

‘He just slept lying on me. When he was awake he would scream and scream.’

If Renitha wanted something as simple as a shower, her husband, Richard, a lecturer in accounting and finance, also at Bristol University, would have to be on hand.
‘I would pass Josh to Richard and he would have to hold him while he screamed,’ she remembers.

‘There was one day when Josh had tantrum after tantrum, and I was so upset I started crying, and Josh just looked at me without any awareness.

‘I remember thinking: “He will never feel what I’m feeling. He can’t understand emotion”.’

When Josh was three, a health visitor witnessed him having a violent tantrum and referred Josh to specialists at Frenchay hospital, where he underwent twice-weekly diagnostic tests over a six-week period.

‘At the end, the specialists gave me a depressing report explaining that Josh was seriously disabled with autism,’ says Renitha.

Autism is a developmental disorder that affects more than 100,000 children. It is not known what causes it, but it affects a child’s ability to communicate and relate to others.

They are often withdrawn, mute, unable to make eye contact and prone to disturbed sleep and tantrums.

Many never take part in mainstream education and some require full-time care.

Indeed, Josh’s specialists wanted him to be sent to a special school.

‘They did not think he would cope in mainstream school,’ says Renitha.

However, she and her husband decided to reject that advice.

‘We have nothing against special schools, but we thought we would see if mainstream school could work for him first,’ she says.

Nowadays, the difference in Josh would strike outsiders as a massive change.

‘He loves maths and can play Grade 3 pieces on the piano,’ says Renitha.

‘Last year, he made me a beautiful bracelet for Mother’s Day. It made me realise how much things had changed.

‘If anyone is hurt, he will go up to them and ask why and try to give them a cuddle or cheer them up.

‘If he is unsure why someone is upset, he will ask questions to try to understand.’

Josh’s transformation is far from unique, according to the Pediatrics study.

The researchers questioned 1,366 parents of children aged 17 and younger who had been previously diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder.

Of these, 453 parents said that their children no longer had the condition and had grown out of it since the age of seven.

The lead researcher, Dr Andrew Zimmerman, from Massachusetts General Hospital for Children, accepts the findings might partly reflect the fact that some of the children may have been misdiagnosed.

But he stresses that these are only a minority, and his results should certainly not be put down to misdiagnosis alone.

‘It is not unusual to see a child start out with more severe autism and then become more moderate and even mild as the years go by,’ he says.

‘A lot of the kids are improving. We don’t know why, except that there’s a lot of mold-ability of the developing brain.’

Dr Zimmerman’s conclusion is backed by previous studies which have suggested that between 3 per cent to 25 per cent of autistic children ‘recover’.
However, it is not a view shared by the UK’s National Autistic Society.

Dr Georgina Gomez-de-la-Cuesta, who leads research at the society, says that although children’s behaviour can improve with intensive support, ‘autism is a lifelong and disabling condition — a child with autism will grow up to be an adult with autism.’

But Professor Simon Baron-Cohen, a psychologist at Cambridge University and one of Britain’s leading experts on autism, agrees that children with the condition can improve significantly.

‘This is not to say the autism goes away or has been cured,’ he says.

‘People with autism are just like anyone else and can be capable of learning.

‘This can change the nature of their brains — because, when any child learns, this process must make changes in their brain. That happens with all of us.’
Is this what happened with Renitha’s son, Josh?

‘Some people say he has grown out of it,’ says Renitha. ‘But they have no idea of the hard work that has been involved.’

Instead, she believes the improvements are a result of her intense efforts to teach Josh to cope with his condition.

She read in a magazine that, in some people with autism, the left and right hemispheres of their brain appear to not ‘connect’ as effectively as people without the condition.

Renitha also read that playing a musical instrument is one of the few activities that activate the left and right hemispheres at the same time.

MailOnline

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