Showing posts with label Autism Research. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Autism Research. Show all posts

Genetic Differences Between Autism and ADHD—and Why It Matters

Genetic Differences Between Autism and ADHD—and Why It Matters

On the surface, autism and ADHD might look like they share some overlapping behaviors, especially in areas like attention and impulsivity. But beneath those similarities, the genetic research on each reveals fundamental differences. And with more people receiving both diagnoses (often called AuDHD), genetic research is starting to explore how these conditions interact in the same person.

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Why was I not benefiting from the vast amount of research that is being done in the name of understanding autism better? After all, autism has been an official diagnosis since 1980.
-Hari Srinivasan, Time

 

Emotionality Paradigm

An emotionality paradigm refers to an experimental framework or set of tasks designed to study how individuals perceive, process, and respond to emotional stimuli. These paradigms typically involve presenting participants with stimuli that elicit emotions, such as images, sounds, or videos of facial expressions, emotional words, or scenarios that convey different emotional states (e.g., fear, joy, anger, disgust). Researchers use these paradigms to investigate aspects of emotional processing, including recognition of emotions, emotional regulation, attention to emotional cues, and the impact of emotions on decision-making or behavior.

In the context of neuroscience or psychology, emotionality paradigms might be used alongside techniques like EEG, fMRI, or behavioral tasks to observe the neural correlates of emotional processing or assess how emotional responses differ across populations, such as in autism or anxiety disorders. For example, a task might involve showing a participant an image of a fearful face and measuring their brain response or reaction time to assess how quickly and accurately they process the emotion.

In PlainSpeak (Lay Language)

An emotionality paradigm is a way for researchers to study how people react to and process emotions. In these studies, participants are shown things that cause emotional reactions, like pictures, sounds, or videos showing different feelings such as happiness, fear, or anger. The goal is to understand how people recognize emotions, how they manage or control their emotions, and how emotions affect their thoughts or decisions.

In brain research, these tasks might be done while tracking brain activity using tools like EEG or fMRI, which help see how the brain processes emotions. These studies are often used to compare how people with different conditions, like autism or anxiety, respond to emotional situations. For example, a task might show a picture of a scared face, and researchers would measure how fast or accurately someone notices or reacts to that emotion.



 



"Willy-nilly... existing autism research findings, and the resultant therapies and educational strategies, have been applied across the board to all autistics.

Unfortunately, a lack of success in therapies not suited for you in the first place, leads to negative downstream impacts such as being placed in low expectations classrooms, the closure of opportunities, and less than positive lifetime outcomes."
-Hari Srinivasan, Time