Good intentions are being poked a bit too hard at the moment.



Let me describe an epiphany I had regarding a possible cause of autism.
(I tried to describe it to my sons elementary teachers but was met with the crazy person eye roll)
As I would in generating a new invention, I looked at as much on the shelf facts, research and curious discoveries that I could before processing and focusing all the diverse data into a hypothesis.
Mind you I am motivated by living with an autistic son for 13 years.

First my conclusion: I believe the cause of autism is a protein malfunction. The protein in question is the one that uncouples/destroys duplicate neurons that were naturally formed as redundent neurons in the early development of the brain between ages 1 and 5.

Experpt of some of my selected supporting facts;
Redundent neuronal connections in an infants brain is part of the overall plasticity that helps to heal any damage to the brain easily as well as accelerate learning.
Redundant neurons gradually diminish until few redundant neurons exist any longer and brain plasticity is at its minimum.

The brains of autistic children are shown to weigh more and be more massive than normal brains. This is at its peak at ages 4-7. This could correspond to the failure to re-absorb redundent neurons. More neurons, more mass.

From my own observations the symptoms of autism seems to mesh with the idea that messages are being overprocessed, sent on circuitous paths and cause overstimmulated responses to smel,l taste, noise and other stimuli.

The protein respondsible for paring down redundent neurons [the "just in case extra extra" or the "back ups in case of system failure neurons"] is for some reason not being told to do its job,
or is not doing its job properly,
or is not being formed in the first place due to genetic, exogenetic or enviormental factors.

Research needs to focus on finding this protein, understand its function more clearly and learn enough to perhaps create therapies or cures.

etc etc


In short autistic kids have too much brain wiring that causes thoughts and sensations to get overly jumbled and confused. That can be a very scary brain to live inside. The stress of living with such a brain can manifest itself in nearly infinite ways.

This is soley my idea but as in everything else in life there has to be someone else who thinks in a similar and obvious way and has expressed somthing like this idea.
Getting someone to do something about it is the problem.

In my case I am married to the person who is respondsible for national programs of medical reseach specializing in child disorders.

So I'm seemingly well positioned to inspire a research group to look into this matter. Especailly with stimulus funding needing to be spent.

Wish me luck. Or curse my blunder, anything to help understand autism is welcomed.