This is one of four talks from the IMFAR 2012 symposium Anxiety in Autism Spectrum Disorders: From Biology to Treatment. The overall session theme: It’s clear that anxiety is a major problem for kids and adults on the autism spectrum, now we need to figure out how to treat it. This summary is not intended […]
Emily Willingham www.emilywillinghamphd.com Much of what I saw at IMFAR (self-selected, obviously) focused on assessing sex hormone differences or the presumed outcomes of such differences in autistic vs non-autistic populations. As the Father of the Extreme Male Brain Hypothesis that androgen levels relate to autism, Simon Baron-Cohen appeared as senior author on several posters in
This is one of four talks from the IMFAR 2012 symposium Anxiety in Autism Spectrum Disorders: From Biology to Treatment. The overall session theme: It’s clear that anxiety is a major problem for kids & adults on the autism spectrum. The onus on us to figure out how to treat it. Any errors or omissions
Carol Greenburg www.thinkingautismguide.com The author and Stephen Shore Evidence-based information and spirited civil debate abounded at IMFAR 2012. Though I thought we all could have benefited from more power outlets in the breakout rooms, I had some terrific conversations with other attendees — some autistic, some not. I found the formal presentations a bit uneven
Susan Daniels Acting director of office of autism research coordination at NIH (National Institutes of Health) Involved in strategic planning & research at IACC (Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee) —- Dr. Daniels spoke at IMFAR about the IACC and the NIH, on the autism research landscape, and IACC research and data sharing. Any errors or
Dr. Evans was a keynote speaker at IMFAR 2012. His talk centered around the work that is being done based on the data collected from the longitudinal study of normal brain development at NIH. He spoke extensively about correlates that can be read from the data, for example, the relationship between cortical structure and things
Emily Willingham www.ThinkingAutismGuide.com Caveat: All findings discussed here were presented at a conference and have not undergone peer review. —- What is the use of animal models? I understand the use of animal models like mice to figure out how gene changes affect outcomes in a whole animal, rather than, say, in cells in a
Shannon Des Roches Rosa www.ThinkingAutismGuide.com TPGA editors at IMFAR 2012 We had a great time at IMFAR; it was important that TPGA be present, given our mission to support evidence-based autism information. I wish more autistic people and people whose lives include autism — personally or professionally — would or could attend. We’ll keep posting
We’ll be posting about IMFAR 2012 over the next week or so, once we all catch our breath. In the mean time, see if you can identify the four people in this photo, which was taken when said folk peered over an iPad after nearly an hour of intense discussion. (Hint: All four have contributed
Any omissions or errors in this summary are on TPGA; we have tried to include explanatory links for specific scientific terms. -SR Common and Genetic Variants in the Etiology of ASD: Where is the Field Heading? Bernie Devlin University of Pittsburgh Statistical geneticist, helps design projects & studies. Dr. Devlin’s goal: convince you that we
