We Embrace, Accept CA

I was the Guest of Honor at the talent show of the newly formed non-profit for special needs individuals, We Embrace Accept CA. Accept CA was formed with a view to bridge the gap between the neurotypical experience and the special needs population.

It was an impressive set of performances from some quite "extra-ordinarly" special needs individuals. I was especially impressed by the bicycling skills of my 19 year old friend Athish who has CP. Most typical individuals take skills like biking for granted,  a skill that is easily mastered in childhood and then automated by the body. The act of biking actually involves all kinds of coordination, balance and motor skills. Athish has been learning to ride a bike only the last few months and was able to bike around the stage with little assistance all by himself. Bravo Athish! Athish's parents, Meena Kalyanasundaram and her husband Som are very old family friends of my folks and founders of Accept CA.

I also loved the Stand Up Comedy by 16 year old Riley Ross. This joke of autists taking phrases literally was definitely the best. His mom had told him his birthday was just around the corner and he walked around the block looking for it. He asked why his mom could not just have said that his birthday was the next week.  Young Aarnav has some lovely calendar skills - ask him any date in any years and within some 30-40 seconds, he comes back with the day of the week. He even throws in whether that year was a leap year or not.  Many of the kids performing have some pretty severe challenges, nevertheless they joyfully showcased  their Bollywood skills in the Happy Feet performance.

The Vatsalyam Bharatanatyam performance by co-founder Seena, was a poignant dance-drama portrayal of a mother's expectations and transformation. She expects  a typical child. the joy and fun activities she would have with that child. Instead she is bewildered with a child with  all kinds of issues that she was unprepared for. The dance interpretation of the transformation was quite riveting, especially the eye expressions.  She goes from devastation, grief and hurt to trying to pick up the pieces and fighting for her child. The sadness never quite goes up but it gets buried deeper along the way. I can totally understand as I have observed my mom (and Dad) go through many of these emotions. And these emotions are an ongoing process as disability continually brings with it periods of setbacks and new challenges at every stage of life which are very discouraging, yet they have to find the courage to move ahead.  I'd written a poem few years back, You Never Gave Up on Me.to appreciate not just my mom but all the mom's and caretakers.

I only stayed till intermission unfortunately. The mood-vagaries of my own disability caught up with me, causing a sudden bout of anxiety. It was just better for me to leave at that point. I was sad to have missed the rest of the event but I'm sure it was superb.

I know my journey has been an inspiration to many parents and given them lot of hope for their kids. A decade ago, no one would have thought that my someone with my significant level of challenges would make it to a world-class and top university such as UC Berkeley. Meena Aunty asked me to present a powerpoint of my journey plus any thoughts I had to share. The slides follow in next post

My family has known Athish and his parents Meena and Som since he was a baby and I’ve observed Athish’s progress over the years. Though we don’t communicate openly due to our respective sets of challenges, I could not be prouder to call him my friend. What a wonderful idea to start Accept CA.

Thanks Meena Aunty for having me there and honoring me as well by making me Guest of Honor.

Poison Plant Unmasked

Hari Srinivasan

Prof David Presti / GSI Carson McNeil

Psych C19 Drugs and the Brain

Commentary on Page 56, Pharmako Poeia by Dale Pendell

Poison Plant Unmasked

That plants have power is without a doubt. All are plant people in the end by fact and form, whether they be the modern science-backed western medicine or Ayurveda or the African Traditional Medicine. At times the poison of plants itself is the remedy. For instance, Foxglove is toxic yet has been used to develop treatments for congestive heart failure.

My sensory experience with plants has been largely influenced by the Ayurveda treatment I received in India over 5 summers in the coconut tree filled state of Kerala in South India. I have vivid memories of the scent of Ayurveda meds freshly concocted onsite from locally grown herbs in the nearby fields. The coconut and sesame oils boiled with Ayurveda powders made for sheer tranquility during the Shirodhara and Kizhi massages. The mind would be at peace and the soul in balance for that duration at least. The breeze from the nearby Bharatapuzha river would waft the scent through the cabin even as the cows on campus would wander up to receive a treat in the evenings. Even the very effective Ayurveda mosquito repellent smoke spread in the cabins in the evenings would carry the herbal tang in the air. But in all this euphoria, our eyes are blinded to the fundamental duality in life. For opposites coexist in all planes of life.

I am the power plant. I am the poison plant

… I build, I destroy

Fundamental Duality of Life

… Knowledge interlaced with ignorance

Debate: Plain Packaging on Tobacco Products

Hari Srinivasan

Prof David Presti / GSI Carson McNeil

Psych C19 Drugs and the Brain

First Debate at Cal for Prof David Presti's  Drugs and the Brain class

My task - Opening Statement 

Debate Topic: A plain-packaging requirement for tobacco products should NOT be implemented in the USA.

Our group supports the negative motion, that plain packaging for tobacco products should not be implemented.

It is ironic that in an age where more states are legalizing marijuana, which to a large extent is smoked, there is yet another move to suppress tobacco smoking through plain packaging. Tobacco has been around from ancient times. As we learnt in our last lecture, it was the primary shamanic plant of the Americas. It was used to bind friendships and seal covenants by Native Americans. The Hookah of the east has been around since the era of Akbar the Great in India. Why should Tobacco alone be demonized, targeted and penalized? After all it is but one of the many poison plants that we are surrounded by.

We argue that plain packaging is not evidence based, infringes on our intellectual property rights, curtails freedom of speech and  increases illicit trade.

A Guiness Record

Bragging Rights on the first day at UC Berkeley

Day 1 of Golden Bear Orientation for the incoming class of 9500 students

The incoming class got to participate in a Guinness World Record Event for the largest human letter. Took a few hours to form the letter inside Memorial Stadium. We were in line for a couple of hours outside the stadium waiting to get in. I'm somewhere in the bottom of the letter C.

First Day At UC Berkeley for the DSP Orientation

Feeling a bit overwhelmed. 

Waiting for the DSP Orientation

A crowded registration

Suite Seats for the Ball Game

SF Giants vs Oakland A's at AT&T Park last Thursday. Giants won 11-2. 

What an amazing suite level seats to see the game. The view from up there is amazing.

Thank you David and his parents Linda and Gary for inviting us. 

I totally loved the experience.

for older posts see my old blog journal4hari.blogspot.com

for older posts see my old blog journal4hari.blogspot.com

Happy Father's Day

Moods from worry about my future

To elation over past accomplishments

My dad

Dives with passion into cooking

Explore hip youtube recipes

International eating, GFCF  style

My dad

Fingers fly over the qwerty keys

Searching for solutions that may help me

unendingly

My dad

We watch basketball and football heavily

Sprinkles of cricket and tennis thrown in

Warriors Champs 2017

My dad

Quite the best Bud really

Happy  Father’s Day

Plans. Dad and I will have a father-son lunch on sunday.

Go Bears. I got admitted to UC Berkeley

 

SJCC Commencement

I graduated from San Jose City College. Yeah!

Looking forward to going to UC Berkeley

Highlights

- Special Callout for Outstanding Academic Achievement during the Commencement.

(That was quite unexpected)

- I had been shortlisted (list of 5) for valedictorian too

- Three tassels on my cap. Yellow for Honors, Purple - Transfer, Black - Regular)

- Yellow Honor Cord

- Lots of Sashes - a silver one from DSP too.

- My Patti (grandma) was able to attend.

Graduation Album

A Baby Bundle

A Baby Bundle

A baby bundle handed to you.

Eyes in slumber or gazing at you

Innocence personified!!

Lightning flash……..

It’s gonna be...

Love at First Sight!

Impact of Autism and Coping Strategies in Indian-American Families

Impact of Autism and Coping Strategies in Indian-American Families.

Hari Srinivasan

---

APA Poster

---

Abstract

This paper explores the impact of autism and coping strategies amongst  Indian-American families living in the San Francisco Bay Area. Descriptive information on the challenges faced, coping strategies and a stress score (as measured by the Cohen Perceived Stress Scale) was gathered from 18 Indian-American parents of individuals with autism. The study finds that  high levels of stress amongst the ASD families (sample mean of 19.2) compared to the non-ASD families (population mean of 13). The study found that the age of the ASD family member does not seem to influence stress levels. There is however  a direct correlation between the severity of challenging ASD symptoms and the level of stress.  

This study suggests that if causes are better understood about the underlying physiological conditions for each specific case of autism, rather than classifying autism into one broad bucket, it may lead to more targeted treatments and better support systems could be put in place as well.

Positive outcomes for ASD individuals lead to less stress for families. Families also need more comprehensive support and resources in planning and supporting the needs of their ASD family member. Less stress for families leads to better outcomes for the ASD individuals.

---

A Case Study in the Neural Basis of Communication Challenges

[Concepts in Sensorimotor Research]

An Assignment on Speech and Language 

The chapter on the Physiology of Speech and Language is frustratingly close to home for me as I am severely limited by both my expressive speech and almost very poor handwriting skills (along with other stuff). So I thought I would look at the concepts in this chapter in terms of a case-study of an impacted individual, namely me.

A Case Study in the Neural Basis of Communication Challenges

H is a young adult, who was diagnosed with Autism at age 3. His was a case of regressive Autism in which infants who seem to develop typically and meet developmental milestones,  lose much of their language and other skills soon after the 18 month mark. H exhibits both speech and motor (writing) challenges. This report is an attempt to delineate H’s communication challenges along with the current scientific knowledge about their neural basis.

H’s consistent expressive speech ranges to a dozen or so few key phrases. His articulation may be hard to understand for people not familiar with him.  He can repeat phrases and can sing, though his prosody and articulation are inconsistent.  In receptive language skills, he is well above age cognitively.  He was fortunate to learn typing on an AAC device as a mode of communication which has helped improve his quality of life. What is intriguing in this case is that the subject is very articulate when it comes to written communication, yet struggles with basic conversational speech. H’s communication challenges could broadly be placed under Apraxia of Speech diagnosis though there may be an overlap with other diagnoses related to communication. Since the loss of speech was at an early age, it is often referred to as Developmental Apraxia or Developmental Dyspraxia,.

Apraxia of Speech is an impaired ability to consistently produce and sequence the facial/oral muscles to produce the sounds and syllables required in spoken language. H has reported that he knows what he wants to say but he is not able to sequence that thought into actual speech at that particular moment. He also exhibits other oral-motor skill issues such as challenges in properly chewing food. Studies of brain lesions of patients with Apraxia of Speech provide evidence of impairment in the left precentral gyrus of the insular cortex. Other studies have confirmed the findings that “articulation activated the left insular insula.

Spontaneous talking requires information to flow from the sensory-motor association cortex into the posterior language area of Broca’s area. Then the act of talking itself requires some significant and rapid movement, sequencing and coordination of numerous facial and oral motor muscles (tongue, lips, jaw) along with the vocal chords. Broca’s area along with the inferior caudal left front lobe is implicated in, “memories of sequences of muscular movements used to articulate words,” (Carlson). In addition, Broca’s area is also directly connected to the part of the primary cortex that controls speech muscles. So Broca’s area seems to be a  major player in H’s case.

H does not seem to exhibit significant challenges in the precursors to spoken language - such as perception of present and past events, memories (with some occasional deficits in  short term memory), thoughts and the desire to communicate. Comprehension does not seem to be impacted, which seems to rule out Wernicke’s area as a source of concern. Wernicke’s area is however connected to Broca’s area through the arcuate fasciculus, also known as the Phonological Loop. This connection seems to play a role in the short term memory of speech sounds. H has exhibited difficulty in repeating back  longer strings of words or forgetting the speech sounds of words he’d just read aloud.

There are elements of aphasia involved in that H exhibits anomia (groping for words) in addition to difficulty with articulation.  H likens his word finding difficulty to a, “spotlight effect;”  when placed in a situation where  he is required to speak, adding to the “tongue-tied” result, which in his case is word-retrieval difficulty. If a beginning sound such as the sound “M” is given to him as a prompt, he may cycle through his mental dictionary of words starting with that sound. For example if therapist Michael (vs Michelle) is at the door, H may greet him as, “Hi Michelle,” and a few other names, before arriving at the correct, “Hi Michael.” The word retrieval difficulty ranges from mild to significant on any given day.  H’s history has included EEG’s showing mild disturbances in the temporal lobe. Studies of brain lesions have linked the temporal lobe to the word-retrieval issues.   

Studies have found parallels between spoken language and  written language. For example H, exhibits difficulty in the prosody (rhythm, tone, emphasis) of spoken language which is believed to be controlled by neural connections in the right hemisphere. In his handwriting attempts too, there is disruption in the motor organization of the letters and spacing on the page, believed to be controlled by the dorsal parietal lobe and the premotor cortex. The act of handwriting activates the dorsal parietal lobe, the premotor cortex and the primary cortex.  H exhibits poor motor memory of the motor sequences of space, size and spacing of letters that is required for handwriting. Both attempts at speech and attempts at handwriting therefore are labored and prone to errors. Communication via typing has somewhat simplified the motor aspects of forming letters for H as that requires  keys to be pressed as compared to gripping a pen and drawing letters.

The overarching nature of the Autism Spectrum, with little knowledge of its physiological underpinnings means that there could be many other factors which play into the communication challenges. What is intriguing in H’s case (and frustrating for H himself) is the huge chasm between his motor ability (both speech and writing) and his comprehension and cognition skills.  Basic communication, especially spontaneous speech, is however a critical aspect of daily human functioning and hence its lack greatly affects the individual’s quality of life.  Our scientific understanding of neural workings, unfortunately have not yet reached a level where it  translates into meaningful treatment manipulation.

Psych 22: Biological Psychology