Throughout the news “false claims” have been made stating the theory that vaccines may very well cause autism. Specifically, the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine has been targeted.
2. What evidence supports or refutes this theory?
Doctors state that there are no direct links between autism and vaccines. Vaccines are made in order to prevent a child from catching a serious disease that may very well result in death. It is found to run in families, and the direct genetic makeup that causes autism is still being researched. Vaccines do not impact the growth patterns or mental development that shows up before the age of three as symptoms of autism. Parents are afraid of autism …show more content…
Research on twins has helped show the genetic link between autism and children. One identical twin has a 75% chance of developing autism if their twin has it.
4. What brain structures are implicated in autism?
The frontal lobe, responsible for judgement, emotions, speech, etc, and the temporal lobe, which regulates hearing, interpretation, and sound. Both of these structures showed to be almost the same in gene expression in children with autism. Those who did not suffer from autism had very different gene expressions in their frontal love compared to their temporal lobe.
5. What neurotransmitters may be involved? GABA is one of the neurotransmitter pathways that potentially plays a role in the sensory overload that can trigger autism, as well as the seizures that often come with it. This inhibitory neurotransmitter is currently playing a key role in discovering the cause of autism. Those with autism are now showing less GABA activity than those who do not have …show more content…
The reward processing that most children have developed as they grow older is much weaker in those with autism, creating lower levels of motivation. The left side of the brain is linked to processing language. Neuroimaging has shown that those with autism have brain regions that are not responsive to speech. While speech is hindered, the brain regions closer together are overactive, shown through repetitive actions that the children tend to lean towards such as repeatedly clapping/flapping their hands and developing slight obsessions over certain objects.
Mainly, neuroimaging studies are now helping discover what causes the abnormal brain development that begins when children are infants (Foundation).
9. What is the "growth dysregulation hypothesis" The growth dysregulation hypothesis is a new theory that anatomical abnormalities seen in autism are caused by defect genetics in brain growth (Health Care). The hope is that through this hypothesis, researchers will be able to figure out if the rapid head growth of infants is an early warning signal for autism, and that a biological intervention will be established in order to treat and even prevent autism from