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A child's diagnosis of autism is devastating for parents to hear. Knowing their child will never develop the way a normal child would. Instead the symptoms of autism will overpower the person hidden within. The symptoms include problems in social relations and communication, abnormal responses to one or a combination of senses, sustained odd play, unresponsiveness to verbal cues, little or no eye contact, insistence on sameness, noticeable physical overactivity or underactivity, speech and language absence or delays, and inappropriate laughing and abnormal ways of reacting to people, objects and events. Social interaction is intricately involved in autism. In order to better understand this disease, researchers began by examining the most basic social attachment for clues as to what may have gone wrong in the development of autistic persons.
Leading the charge to understand the cause of autism is Dr. Thomas Insel. Dr. Insel has been investigating social attachment since the last century when he began studying small rodents, prairie voles, which form long-lasting pairbonds with their mates and comparing them to the closely related montane voles which are anything but monogamous. Starting in the early 1990's, Dr. Insel examined the neurological basis of social attachment and found two chemicals, oxytocin and vassopressin, found in the brain which play a critical role in the formation of long-lasting pairbonds in prairie voles. After identifying these substances and their roles, the areas of action within the brain were examined and there was a significant difference between the monogamous prairie vole and the polygamous montane vole. Dr. Insel then searched for similar actions of oxytocin and vassopressin in higher order animals with the goal of applying this knowledge to human relations.
Autism seemed a logical place to begin looking at possible differences in oxytocin and vassopressin effects within the brain that affect social behavior. Interestingly, the first difference was found in oxytocin receptors within autistic patients' brains. A specific area of the brain which is vital for normal social behavior is void of all oxytocin receptors in autistic patients' brains. This area was first implicated in social attachment by the early research of Dr. Insel and his colleagues.
Upon further examination, it was discovered that this defect in the oxytocin receptor pattern of autistic patients is due to a genetic error traced to chromosome 7. This now leaves open the door to treatment with viral vectors to correct the disorder before it has the chance to affect the person. The procedure to be used would involve viral vectors to insert the correct genetic sequence, as has been proven effective in the treatment of cystic fibrosis.
Dr. Insel's initial interest in social attachment has led to increasingly interesting findings and now results in a possible intervention in autism to stop this disease before it starts. Once again research pays off and science advances to better the human race. Hopefully it will soon relieve the grief felt by parents when they hear their child is autistic.
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