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That’s the opinion of Fehmi Kaya, head of the Health and Education Associations for Autistic Children in Adana, Turkey. Autistic children are atheists, he said, “due to a lack of a section for faith in their brains.” From TimeTurk (English edition) 4/22/13: “Autistic children do not know believing in God because they do not have a section of faith in their brains,” Kaya said, according to daily Milliyet. Kaya said the underdevelopment of faith sections in the brain caused autistic children to not believe in God. “That is why they don’t know how to pray, how to believe in God....

Scientists from King's College London have identified patterns of epigenetic changes involved in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) by studying genetically identical twins who differ in autism traits. The study, published in Molecular Psychiatry, is the largest of its kind and may shed light on the biological mechanism by which environmental influences regulate the activity of certain genes and in turn contribute to the development of ASD and related behaviour traits. ASD affects approximately 1 in 100 people in the UK and involves a spectrum of disorders which manifest themselves differently in different people. People with ASD have varying levels of...

I have a question for those of you in the education and medical fields. A friend of mine was talking about the struggles her mother had (who suffered from Alzheimer's) with communicating. I have worked with several children who had Autism, and they too had difficulty communicating. One thing we do to help children with Autism communicate is to use picture boards and other visual cues. Does anybody know if this type of thing is used to help Alzheimer's patients communicate??

A first-ever vaccine created by University of Guelph researchers for gut bacteria common in autistic children may also help control some autism symptoms. The groundbreaking study by Brittany Pequegnat and Guelph chemistry professor Mario Monteiro appears this month in the journal Vaccine. They developed a carbohydrate-based vaccine against the gut bug Clostridium bolteae. C. bolteae is known to play a role in gastrointestinal disorders, and it often shows up in higher numbers in the GI tracts of autistic children than in those of healthy kids. More than 90 per cent of children with autism spectrum disorders suffer from chronic, severe...

Had this crime been perpetrated by a roving band of evangelicals who object to scientific treatment of autism and schizophrenia, you might have heard a lot about it this week. As it is, that would never happen, and it was animal-rights activists who did the damage. Will the reputation of their cause and mainstream activists have to contend with their actions? Activists occupied an animal facility at the University of Milan, Italy, at the weekend, releasing mice and rabbits and mixing up cage labels to confuse experimental protocols. Researchers at the university say that it will take years to recover...

The co-author of a book on partisan science recently examined by Pacific Standard argues that our reviewer was a little too partisan himself. Any book that touches upon politics almost automatically angers half of the American public, regardless of what is written inside of it. It takes a special person—an objective, open-minded and self-critical one—to read and learn from a science book that criticizes people with whom the reader likes and agrees with politically.Recently, Pacific Standard published a review (“Red Science, Blue Science,” January/February 2013) by Wray Herbert, a pop psychology writer,of political writer Chris Mooney’s book The Republican Brain...

A local Chili's restaurant in Midvale, Utah, might have made the grave mistake of "breaking" one little girl's cheeseburger by cutting it in half, but the waitress, manager and line cooks more than made up for it Sunday when they presented her with a brand new "fixed" one. Seven-year-old Arianna Hill is autistic and she loves cheeseburgers. But apparently, ones that are cut in half just won't do. "We just decided we were going to get some lunch before we were taking her to see the Easter bunny," Arianna's older sister, Anna MacLean, 25, told ABCNews.com. However,when Arianna's burger was...

A mother says she is devastated, after hidden cameras captured caregivers physically abusing her adult disabled son. “It’s hard for me to forgive myself that I took my son and put him in their hand, like you take your son to hell,” Kathy Coleman says. Caregivers were recorded by hidden cameras kicking and punching her son Cameron, stomping on his face, spitting on him, whipping him with a chain and threatening him, possibly even shooting him with a pellet gun. “My son is sick. Does he deserve this?” Coleman asks. Cameron is a 31-year-old man with autism. He doesn’t speak...

Five disorders from depression to autism share a genetic link, which could pave the way for new treatments Autism, ADHD, bipolar disorder, depression and schizophrenia overlap at a genetic level Two gene markers common to all of the disorders govern the balance of calcium in brain cells New understanding could help develop treatments The five most common mental health and developmental disorders share a common genetic root, a study has found. Scientists found a link between autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), bipolar disorder, depression and schizophrenia. The findings, from Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, could revolutionise how doctors think...

Mililani - For half a dozen former Kipapa Elementary School students, room P-10 was a little class of horrors. Hawaii News Now has learned that the families of six disabled students have now come forward with allegations of abuse by staffers at this Mililani School. The latest allegations come from the parents of an autistic girl who say school staffers force fed their daughter, often to the point of vomiting. Court documents filed in U.S. District Court say that in some instances the girl -- who often had trouble eating -- was forced to eat food she threw up. People familiar with the case say the girl also was...

Shortly after her move from New Hampshire to Newtown in 1998, Nancy Lanza had good news about her troubled son. "Adam is doing well here, and seems to be enjoying the new school," Lanza wrote to a friend back in Kingston, N.H., in a Feb. 9, 1999, email. But Adam, 6, then diagnosed with a condition that made it difficult for him to manage and respond to sights, touch and smell, eventually struggled in the first grade at his new school — Sandy Hook Elementary. His mother would respond, touching off a 10-year educational shuffle with moves in and out...

A pair of professors objected to our coverage of them at the Modern Language Association (MLA) meeting in Boston this year. Near as we can figure out, what they objected to was the fact that we covered them. “Glad you could make it to my paper on 1930s propaganda and popular culture,” Matthew Stratton, an Assistant Professor of English at the University of California-Davis wrote in an effort at cordiality that belied what was to come. “I must admit, however, that I’m a bit confused by your account of the panel.” “What exactly in my paper did you find objectionable...

...The vast majority of autistic people are not violent.... But the suggestion that science has demonstrated there is no link at all between autism and aggressive violence is questionable. Google “autism” and “aggression” and you will suddenly be treated to a counter world the formal autism community claims does not exist: desperate mothers seeking help or respite from the violent behavior of large, aggressive, beloved autistic boys (and a few girls)...

Ms Conte called the ordeal 'sad' for Lanza and his family, and suggested that the violence is a portion of a much larger situation. 'Guns are easy to point to, but it's really a mental health issue.'

As we reported last night, buried inside the NYT biopic of Newtown shooter Adam Lanza was arguably one of the most important missing pieces in the story, at least so far, which could provide clues into partially explaining yesterday's tragic loss of young life, namely that the 20 year old man suffered from Asperger Syndrome, a high-functioning form of autism (two conditions which are being merged in the upcoming update of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-5) manual of mental disorders), which has been traditionally associated with social communication difficulties, including flat affect, and one which in some clinical studies...

Small-scale trial provides hope for treatment of autistic behaviour in children. A drug normally used to increase the rate at which people urinate improves some of the symptoms of autism in children, according to a small clinical trial published today in Translational Psychiatry1. Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by impaired communication and social interactions, and also by repetitive behaviours in those affected. Research has shown that signalling by a molecule called GABA, a neurotransmitter which normally dampens down neuronal activity, is altered in autism. And that this disruption of GABA is due to increased levels of chloride ions in...

Bill Clinton is famous for feeling others' pain. So he might be the last person one would suspect of having Asperger syndrome, which is characterized by a lack of demonstrated empathy. Yet that is precisely the thought that passed through the mind of Ron Fournier after meeting the former president with his son Tyler, who is diagnosed with the disorder. Fournier told the surprising story on today's Morning Joe. A former Associated Press reporter, now with the National Journal, Fournier recounted how during the meeting, Clinton went off on a long monologue about Teddy Roosevelt, missing the clues that he...

The possibility that autism is linked to traffic pollution has been raised by researchers in California. Their study of more than 500 children said those exposed to high levels of pollution were three times more likely to have autism than children who grew up with cleaner air. However, other researchers said traffic was a "very unlikely" and unconvincing explanation for autism. The findings were presented in the Archives of General Psychiatry journal. Data from the US Environmental Protection Agency were used to work out levels of pollution for addresses in California. This was used to compare exposure to pollution, in...

The rate of autism in New Jersey has doubled in six years to one in 49 children — and one in 29 boys — an “epidemic increase” in a disorder that has confounded researchers for decades.  Two percent of children in the state are now identified with autism by their eighth birthday. For more information * The report on autism prevalence can be found at the website of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, cdc.gov\autism.* Information on the signs and symptoms of autism, as well as developmental milestones, can be found at cdc.gov\ActEarly.* Autism New Jersey provides support...

One of the most popular and widely accepted theories on the cause of autism spectrum disorders attributes the condition to disrupted connectivity between different regions of the brain. This 'connectivity hypothesis' claims that the social and cognitive abnormalities in people with autism can be explained by a dearth of connections between distant regions of the brain1. Some flavours of this theory also predict more connections between nearby brain regions. Recent studies, however, have found that when a person moves their head while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) |[mdash]| a method that maps how different neuroanatomical structures of the brain...