| Description |
288 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 212-271) and index. |
| Contents |
1. Introduction -- 2. Autism and autism spectrum disorders : an introduction to the problem of recognition and diagnosis -- Pervasive developmental disorders -- Early diagnosis -- Autism, a preferred diagnosis? -- The broader phenotype -- Is there really such a thing as autism? : subtypes -- 3. Genetic contribution to autistic spectrum disorders : diversity and insufficiency -- Genetic predisposition to ASD -- How important are genes in ASD? : heritability -- Insufficiency of genetic predisposition -- The search for new genes -- Potential ASD genes -- Problems with the genome approach -- The patchwork genome -- Epigenetics and brain disorders -- Genes and environment -- 4. New phase autism : rising prevalence -- The debate -- Increasing prevalence -- Why do different studies seem to give different rates? -- Potential confounding factors -- Other evidence addressing a rise -- Summary of observations -- Is there an epidemic of autism? -- Conclusion : the rise may be real : new phase autism -- 5. Brain abnormalities : focus on the limbic brain -- Brain structure -- Studying brain structure : techniques -- Morphometric studies : brain size -- Histology : hippocampus, amygdala, cerebellum, cortex -- Imaging studies highlight the limbic brain -- Functional studies -- Cerebellum -- Cortex -- Interpreting structural data -- Consensus : limbic brain and overlying cortex, with lesser cerebellar effects -- 6. Limbic dysfunction correlates with the autistic phenotype -- Memory -- Anxiety -- Desire for sameness -- Perception of facial emotion -- Social interaction -- Language -- Seizure -- Sensory deficits -- Stereotypy and repetitive/compulsive behaviors -- Gastrointestinal (GI) effects and endocrine anomalies -- Age of onset/maturation -- Limbic lesions can produce ASD -- Autism spectrum disorder is consistent with what we know of limbic function -- Overview and conclusions -- 7. Environmental factors, heavy metals, and brain function -- Environmental factors and ASD -- Metals : evidence for exposure -- Heavy metal susceptibility -- Genetic predisposition to heavy metal toxicity -- Heavy metal toxicity : the trimethyltin (TMT) paradigm -- Behavioral consequences of TMT exposure -- Developmental susceptibility -- Population exposure : excess and deficiency -- Limbic susceptibility to toxic insult -- Other environmental factors -- Heavy metals and other insults : a toxic cocktail in ASD -- 8. Gut, hormones, immunity : physiological dysregulation in autism -- Brain to body signaling -- Gastrointestinal (GI) tract disorder -- Serotonin elevation in autism -- Hormones in ASD -- Immune system -- Liver and kidney -- Conclusion -- 9. Body and mind : impact of physiological changes on brain and behavior in ASD -- Gut and brain -- Serotonin, brain effects -- Hormones and brain -- Sulfur pathways and gene expression -- Heme pathways, brain feedback -- Amino acid pathways and heme -- Do feedback cascades operate in ASD? -- A complexity : seizure -- How good is the evidence? : assessment of different damage routes -- 10. Biomedical therapy : typing and correction -- What's wrong with my child? : subtyping ASD -- Approaches to therapy -- Pharmaceutical agents -- Rectification of biochemical deficits -- Speech and behavior therapies -- Prevention -- The Gesch and Walsh studies -- 11. The environmental threat : from autism and ADHD to Alzheimer -- Nature and timing of the insult -- Diverse impairments, from autism to Alzheimer disease -- Beyond the brain -- Co-risks and co-disorders -- Environmental toxicity only produces disease in predisposed individuals -- Sociobiology of the limbic brain : convergence -- Promoting neurogenesis : potential for therapy -- What causes autism? -- Concluding remarks -- References -- Abbreviations and glossary -- Further reading -- Index. |
| Subject |
Autism -- Pathophysiology.
|
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Autism -- Environmental aspects.
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Autistic Disorder.
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Brain -- physiopathology.
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Environmental Exposure.
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| ISBN |
9781843104384 |
|
1843104385 |
|
