Autism is on the rise in the United States. The prevalence has increased from 1 in 110 in 2006 to 1 in 68 in 2010. This increase has led to more awareness surrounding the disease, as well as increased hype and concern.
Jenny McCarthy’s infamous campaign against vaccines as the culprit of her child’s autism has gained a lot of attention, and caused a “red scare” on vaccines.
This campaign, however, has been more detrimental to the health of the country than good. Outbreaks of diseases not seen since their vaccine development have caused detrimental consequences to children whose parent’s decided against vaccination.
Vaccines no longer contain the mercury that once was thought to cause autism—but the rate of autism diagnoses still increases. Thus, vaccines are not the culprit—the CDC confirms this. This then begs the question, what is?
Who Done It? Will We Ever Know?
(Won, H., Mah, W., Kim, E., 2013)
As one can observe from this lovely figure taken from this week’s research paper—the culprit lies in a mess of chemical signaling pathways. Not only can we not pinpoint exactly which red blob—the red are highlighted to signify that they are known to malfunction in autistic individuals—is responsible for autism, but this diagram doesn’t even account for all the variables.
There are considerations that need to be done about where in the brain the problem is occurring. The science points to the cerebellum and specifically in the Purkinje cells. However, there are also major differences that occur in autistic brains in various other structures—such as the hippocampus, corpus callosum, and amygdala.
Along with this, there are also environmental factors at play. There is a high metal sensibility in autistic brains—that cannot be traced to vaccines—but must be traced to something.
There are also neonatal concerns. Infection during pregnancy increases the risk of autism development in the child.
With all of these factors, the solution to the crime may never be solved.
What do we Now? The Evidence is Mounting.
Throughout the week we each investigated one of the red blobs. It seems that each plays a significant role in the development of autism, but each plays a different role that connects to other pathways, diseases, and complications.
Some of the more promising leads are pointing to Purkinje cell development in the cerebellum. These cells seem to over develop in the signal receiving end of the neuron—called the dendrite—while under developing in the signal sending regions—the axon.
(photo of Purkinje cell)
This results in loss of correct connections being made. The red blobs likely involved—that are likely to be caught “red handed”—are the neurexin and neurolignin connective proteins as well as the REK protein thought to guide axonal growth.
More evidence points to these culprits as the cerebellum’s functions are discovered. More and more, there are discoveries that link this stereotypical motor center with behavioral and social actions. If this is the case, the cerebellum and its Purkinje cells could be the eyewitnesses needed to point to the autism instigating culprit.
What will the penalty be? Treatment of ASD.
The culprit is on the verge of being caught. While the chemistry and brain functioning is complex, the story is continuously being uncovered. This leaves us with the judicial duty of questioning, what will we do once the culprit is identified?
We need to think critically about what autism is and what it is that is harmful about it. Yes, some behaviors that result from the disease are extremely harmful, and there is a lot to be said about the benefits of improving treatments.
However, there is a question about “odd” behavior and “bad” social skills. Should everyone be the same and have the same ability to interact? What is wrong with someone who doesn’t like to interact with others as much as they like to study art or science, for example?
By uncovering all there is to uncover about autism in the brain we run the risk of discovering what makes certain personalities develop over others. And this is a slippery slope.
Thus, this quest for who done it is one of pointing fingers instead of solving true problems. The autism scare must stop being about the hype, and start being about the science to treat the harmful aspects, while leaving room for individuality.
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