FCAI NISE Fellow Publishes Article in Psychology Today Regarding Grief in the Autistic Community
Frist Center for Autism and Innovation Neurodiversity Inspired Science and Engineering Fellow Hari Srinivasan has published a new article in Psychology Today about the impact of grief on the autistic community.
In this article, Hari discusses his own moving experiences with grief after the recent loss of both of his grandparents and how grief as an emotion can impact the autistic community in very different ways.
As well as being a Neurodiversity Inspired Science and Engineering Fellow, Hari is a Ph.D. neuroscience student at Vanderbilt University, a graduate of UC Berkeley, a PD Soros Fellow, a Fellow at the Frist Center for Autism and Innovation, a non-federal member of NIH’s Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee, and on various boards including Duke University’s ACE and The Brain Foundation.He is a Public Voices Fellow of The OpEd Project.
A PlainSpeak Plain Language version for Lay Reader
What is Mental Time Travel (MTT)?
MTT is our brain's amazing ability to think back to past events or imagine what might happen in the future. For example, you might think back to a fun birthday party or imagine what your next vacation will be like. MTT helps us move through time in our minds, so we can remember, plan, and dream.
How Do Scientists Measure MTT? Scientists have a way to measure this ability called the MTT Task. In this task, people are given words like "graduation" or "vacation" and asked to either remember something from their own life or imagine something in the future. For example, you might think of your own graduation day in the past or imagine what a future vacation could be like.
Scientists use this task to understand how well people can remember specific events from their lives (like their own birthday) or think about events that could happen in the future (like planning a holiday). This helps them learn more about how our brains work when we think about the past and future, especially in people with different conditions like aging or mental health issues.
MTT and Autism: What Do We Know?
Scientists are starting to learn that autistics might think about the past and future a little differently. Some autistics might find it hard to remember specific personal events or to imagine detailed future plans. This could be because of differences in how their brains work when recalling memories or imagining the future.
But it's important to remember that everyone with autism is different. Some may find these tasks easy, while others may find them more challenging. By studying how autistics use MTT, scientists hope to learn more about how they think about time and how we can better support them.
Future research could look at
How Autistics Remember: Understanding how autistics remember personal events and how this might be different from others.
Imagination and Planning: Learning more about how autistics imagine the future and plan for it.
Brain Studies: Using special brain scans to see how the parts of the brain involved in MTT might work differently in autistics.
I'm going to miss this, but if you are in Berkeley that time, do give it a peek.
Spring 2024 DCC Art Exhibition! The Art Panelist Committee selected your art to be displayed in the art gallery from the first week of March to the second week of May 2024. Congratulations on being accepted into the art exhibition!
the Art Exhibition Opening is March 7th from 5 pm to 7 pm in theDisability Cultural Community Center in the Hearst Field Annex (HFA) D-25 Berkeley CA 94720.
This post from my UC Berkeley days, showed up at the top of my social media today, along with some new comments.
========== An honor for sure to be called campus change maker. in my email inbox today from DSP ListServ
====== Bringing Disability Awareness & Visibility to Sproul Plaza! Visit our table on Sproul Plaza today from 9 to noon to connect with student groups and campus resources including: The Disabled Students Commission, Berkeley Disabled Students Group (BDS), Spectrum at Cal, OCD at Cal, CAPS, RSF, DSP, and the DCC!
As part of Disability Awareness Month celebrations, we are uplifting the work and stories of a series of Change Makers from the Disability Community. This week, we are highlighting the contributions of Hari Srinivasan. Undergraduate student, instructor of the Autism DeCal, and journalist at the Daily Cal.
Image Description: A photo of Hari standing on a bridge on UC Berkeley's campus. Text reads: Hari Srinivasan. Undergraduate student and instructor. There is a quote from Hari next to it that reads, "I want you to think of disability as possibility too. Only when you think of possibility can the door of opportunity be opened."
Way to go Hari! You make a difference!
There is no “Dis” in ability. Well done , keep up the amazing work!
You earned it, Hari. I love our course together, and I look forward to your work in the future. Get after it!
#harirocks
Hari...You are the best!
Well deserved, Hari! You are doing great things in the world.
Today there was a news article about a 7 year old autistic boy who went missing from his school during the school day. This was during a snowstorm, and he was found shivering and soaked in the middle of a busy traffic intersection by good neighborhood samaritans - and wearing just a thin t-shirt.
The school of course insisted that the child had been missing a mere 2-3 minutes, though investigations show him having walked through a patch of woods and being outside for over 35 minutes.
There had already been a plan in place as this autistic kid frequently eloped (a term used for kids who wander away). The police and parents were to be informed but neither happened. The good samaritans saw a kid darting about in traffic, stopped the traffic, rescued him, took him home and wrapped him in blankets.
Unfortunately the school district missing an autistic child during the school day is more common that you would think. As is the practice of gaslighting parents on the details (fear of being sued!!). The fear of being sued apparently more critically important than any safety concerns of disabled children.
When I was younger (~grade 3-4) I was in a classroom simply known as Room 20 in Dilworth Elementary. An autistic kid in my class did go missing for several hours. The school went into a lockdown as they searched for him. We were all asked to come indoors and stay inside.
Later that afternoon, an old man who lived a few streets away returned the kid as he had found him wandering around.
Of course, there was a lot of discussion in the class that day between the teacher and the classroom aides about how to downplay or not report this incident to the parents at all. I don't know the end result of how much the parents were told, but those overheard conversations about how to avoid revealing the truth about a missing child to its parents by educators are deeply disturbing.
How can we autistics fully put our trust and faith in an education system if we don't believe educators (the ones supposed to nurture and help us) will only will watch their own back and not your back.
I can't believe its Feb 1 already. This year has not a had a great start. I lost my grandpa on December 14, we were barely back from that and then heard my grandma passed away due to a cardiac arrest on Jan 6 so again rushed back from India. Emotionally, one loss is heard but a double loss is heard to handle on any account.
Add to that some horrible travel woes. Lost luggage the first trip - my luggage went to London instead of Chennai. Last minute flight cancellation in Frankfurt leaving us stranded as to how to move on. The 2nd journey no better. Stranded in a cold Newark airport this time. Terrible journeys.
To top it all poicked up illness on the journey or flight (planes are testtubes of disease) and now entire family is sick and quite crazy sick the last couple of weeks with an unknown virus. The saga continues.
