just remeber

[whirlwind]

testosterone= fuck it or kill it.

estrogen= nurture it, relate to it.

Edited April 29, 2004 by wirlwind

[Greg_W]

testosterone? I thought so.

 

What's with all the relationship, male/female interaction threads lately? Everyone horny 'cause it's Spring? Got an e-mail from Trask the other day, his de-virginization clinics are at an all-time high.

[stinkyclimber]

testosterone = can't spell (even if there is a BB spellcheck)

[whirlwind]

spelling nazi's = lack of imagineation so there, check that spelling bi...

[Greg_W]

Not a spelling nazi, it's just that you sound illiterate.

[cracked]

PLURAL DOES NOT REQUIRE THE USE OF AN APOSTROPHE!!!!!!1 (the 1 so I can be as kewl as Dave_Moron_Shuldt).

[arlen]

Autism possibly linked to testosterone

 

According to researchers from Cambridge University, UK, babies who produce high levels of testosterone while they are still in the womb have a higher chance of showing traits of autism later on.

 

These findings could one day lead to screening tests. The findings also indicate that autism is, as many have suspected, a genetic condition.

 

Many believe that autism is an extreme form of male behaviour (US spelling: behavior). The findings of this research seem to lean towards this theory.

 

70 women underwent amniocentesis when they were pregnant. Testosterone levels were taken. Professor Simon Baron-Cohen, team leader, was able to follow up on their babies when they were four years old. Professor Cohen studied 70 children.

 

When the infants became four-year-old toddlers their parents were asked to complete a checklist. This checklist was designed to record any signs of behavioural and social difficulties. Basically, the checklist was designed to pick up on signs associated with autism.

 

Professor Baron-Cohen said: "Those who had a high level of testosterone also found it more difficult to fit into new social groups." Cohen was speaking at the British Psychological Society’s annual meeting. He also commented that the children whose mothers had high levels of testosterone in their wombs were less curious than the other kids (whose mothers did not).

 

He also added that these kids were not autistic. However, he noted a link between foetal testosterone levels and faint signs of autistic-like traits.

 

He said that the 12 month-old babies whose mothers had raised levels of testosterone in their wombs (during the pregnancy) were less willing to make eye contact.

 

Professor Baron-Cohen said: "What I am doing is testing this idea that autism might be an extreme of the male brain. It's showing that the sexes are different. It's not about one being better than the other. You're going to find individuals who are not typical of either sex."

[catbirdseat]

Arlen, you might be interested in this article. It was in todays New York Times about Asperger's Syndrome. Autism is starting to be regarded as a continuum with Asperger's somewhere in the middle between frank autism and normalcy.

 

Here's the first page for those of you without accounts:

 

Answer, but No Cure, for a Social Disorder That Isolates Many

By AMY HARMON

 

Published: April 29, 2004

 

 

ast July, Steven Miller, a university librarian, came across an article about a set of neurological conditions he had never heard of called autistic spectrum disorders. By the time he finished reading, his face was wet with tears.

 

"This is me," Mr. Miller remembers thinking in the minutes and months of eager research that followed. "To read about it and feel that I'm not the only one, that maybe it's O.K., maybe it's just a human difference, was extremely emotional. In a way it has changed everything, even though nothing has changed."

 

Advertisement

 

 

Mr. Miller, 49, who excels at his job but finds the art of small talk impossible to master, has since been given a diagnosis of Asperger's syndrome, an autistic disorder notable for the often vast discrepancy between the intellectual and social abilities of those who have it.

 

Because Asperger's was not widely identified until recently, thousands of adults like Mr. Miller — people who have never fit in socially — are only now stumbling across a neurological explanation for their lifelong struggles with ordinary human contact.

 

As Mr. Miller learned from the article, autism is now believed to encompass a wide spectrum of impairment and intelligence, from the classically unreachable child to people with Asperger's and a similar condition called high-functioning autism, who have normal intelligence and often superior skills in a given area. But they all share a defining trait: They are what autism researchers call "mind blind." Lacking the ability to read cues like body language to intuit what other people are thinking, they have profound difficulty navigating basic social interactions. The diagnosis is reordering their lives. Some have become newly determined to learn how to compensate.

 

They are filling up scarce classes that teach skills like how close to stand next to someone at a party, or how to tell when people are angry even when they are smiling. Others, like Mr. Miller, have decided to disclose their diagnosis, hoping to deflect the often-hostile responses their odd manners and miscues provoke. In some cases, it has helped. In others, it seemed only to elicit one more rejection.

 

This new wave of discovery among Aspies, as many call themselves, is also sending ripples through the lives of their families, soothing tension among some married couples, prompting others to call it quits. Parents who saw their adult children as lost causes or black sheep are fumbling for ways to help them, suddenly realizing that they are disabled, not stubborn or lazy.

 

For both Aspies and their families, relief that their difficulties are not a result of bad parenting or a fundamental character flaw is often coupled with acute disappointment at the news that there is no cure for the disorder and no drug to treat it.

 

"We are with Asperger's where we were 20 years ago with mental illness," said Lynda Geller, director of community services at the Cody Center for Autism in Stony Brook, N.Y. "It is thought to be your fault, you should just shape up, work harder, be nicer. The fact that your brain actually works differently so you can't is not universally appreciated."

 

Some Aspies interviewed asked to remain anonymous for fear of being stigmatized. But with the knowledge that their dysfunction is rooted in biology, many say remaining silent to pass as normal has become an even greater strain.

 

"I would like nothing better than to shout it out to everyone," a pastor in California whose Asperger's was just diagnosed wrote in an e-mail message. "But there is so much explanation and education that needs to happen that I risk being judged incompetent."

 

Some are finding solace in support groups where they are meeting others like themselves for the first time. And a growing number are beginning to celebrate their own unique way of seeing the world. They question the superiority of people they call "neurotypicals" or "N.T.'s"and challenge them to adopt a more enlightened, gentle outlook toward social eccentricities.

 

Asks the tag line of one online Asperger support group: "Is ANYONE really `normal?' "

 

Discovery: Finding Reason for Social Gaffes

 

 

Edited April 29, 2004 by catbirdseat

[whirlwind]

crazy and i always though it was my parents or lack there of that made me a loner

[arlen]

toucheé!