Autism: 8 things you didn’t know about this disorder

Discover eight curiosities and lesser-known aspects of the autism spectrum.

Almost 1% of the 1% of the child population suffers from autism. Autism alters a person's ability to communicate and engage in social interactions, and is identified by the presence of repetitive behaviors.

8 curiosities and things you didn't know about Autism

In this article we will review a total of eight discoveries about this disorder.

1. Geniuses with autism

Outstanding thinkers, scientists and musicians such as Isaac Newton, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig Beethoven, Immanuel Kant and Albert Einstein have been studied by Michael Fitzgerald, British psychiatrist at the Trinity College College Dublin, who concluded that all of them suffered from some degree of autism..

2. Larger than average skull

Autism sufferers segregate higher levels of hormones involved in physical growth, such as insulin-like growth factors type 1 and type 2, compared to people without this disorder.such as insulin-like growth factors type 1 and type 2, compared with people who do not suffer from this disorder.

This peculiarity could explain why the cranial circumference of autistic people is greater, as warned a recent investigation of the Cincinatti University published in Clinical Endocrinology.

3. Indifference before the opinion of others

A research of the California Institute of Technology indicates that people with autism are totally indifferent to what others think or believe about them.. To reach this conclusion, the researchers contrasted the behavior of financial donations to the NGO UNICEF.

Two different situations were compared: the first when the donor made the donation unaccompanied, and the second when he/she was observed by another (or other) subjects. Participants without autism donated larger amounts when another person was present, as the amount contributed was perceived to be an indicator of their social reputation in the eyes of others. In the case of people with autism, the amounts contributed did not differ according to the situation. The results were published in the journal PNAS.

4. They process information more efficiently

People with autism have a superior information-processing capacity compared to the general population, a fact that could reveal the surprising percentage of autistic people whose may reveal the surprising percentage of autistic people whose occupations are in the high-tech sector, according to several research studies carried out in the field of autism.This may reveal the surprising percentage of autistic people whose occupations are in the high-tech sector, according to research carried out in the United Kingdom.

In addition to this better information processing, they are also more adept at discriminating critical information from non-core information. The study was published in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology.

5. The morphology of the autistic face

The face of children with autism has some unique characteristics, as pointed out by recent research published in the journal Molecular Autism.

They have a slightly wider mouth and eyes than average, a larger proportion of forehead, and a larger frontal area.They have a larger proportion of forehead and a subtly smaller midface (cheeks and nose).

6. Premature babies

Low birth weight and premature newborns have a 500% chance of developing autistic disorder. 500% more likely to develop autistic disorder than those who are born at nine months and average weight, as indicated by a study published in Pediatrics which collected data for more than 20 years.

7. Evolutionarily positive

Some genes that influence the development of autism could have had an evolutionary efficacy in our ancestors, because they provided greater capacities in visual and spatial intelligence.The ability to concentrate, concentration and memory, skills that allowed for greater efficiency in hunter-gatherer individuals.

8. Mirror neurons

Autism sufferers have a greater predisposition to have a greater predisposition to suffer problems in their social relationships, as they haveThey have limitations in their capacity to show empathy in human interactions. A study published in the journal Biological Psychiatry revealed that this condition is due to alterations in the system of mirror neurons (those neurons that enable to understand and anticipate the intentions and reactions of other people), which develop much slower than in people without autism.

Extra: Guinea pigs can help people with Autism.

Several scientific investigations have reported that people with autism spectrum disorders benefit from the companionship of this small rodent..

You can check it out by reading this article:

• "Guinea pigs have a positive effect on youngsters with Autism."