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Severe Weather Nashville - Spring Edition
This is a running tab for Spring Mar 30- Jun 20
Neuro-verse
My mind sings verses that caress the senses, transforming my world into a synesthetic tapestry of words.
My brain, a maestro of emotions, conducts a raaga of imagery, metaphor, and laya, serenading the sensory symphony with poetic canvas.
Neurons engage in taal, harmonizing synapses with the hues of perception, painting poetry that captivates the optic cortex and cochlear nerve.
Neural artistry entwines poetry and swara, every ERP, illuminating kaleidoscopic realms.
ASSERT ECHO @Vandy
I have been a participant in the Assert (All Stakeholders Engage in Research Together) project this semester, run by Prof Beth Malow's Sleep Lab. https://www.vumc.org/sleep-in-autism/assert-resources
Its been a good experience, listening to everyone's perspective and being able to contribute, though I could not make last few sessions as it clashed with the new meetings at my new lab rotation.
The disability rights mantra has long centered around Nothing about us without us. And I am glad that to see this idea trickling down with respect to research which will (hopefully) lead us to solutions. And this effort is at happening at many places now - at universities and research centers.
If you are an autistic, please do consider getting involved by emailing assert@vumc.org. It is important that our voices are heard.
Nothing about us, without us.
Origins of the phrase NAUWU:
Finding the actual cause
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2023/06/01/schizophrenia-autoimmune-lupus-psychiatry/
YES. I believe there are parallels for autism. There is probably some other physiological stuff going on that is causing all the SIB, meltdown and even struggles with talking ability which fluctuate on a day to day basis - all stuff which what makes or breaks your inclusion in society and gatekeeps opportunities. I bet after a few decades when I am a very old man, i will find out that what I had was some INFLAMMATORY PROCESS that and treatable as a baby itself and I could have had a better quality of life instead of struggles, exclusion and rejections at every step.
New research suggests that a subset of patients with psychiatric conditions such as schizophrenia may actually have autoimmune disease that attacks the brain
Markx and his colleagues discovered that although April’s illness was clinically indistinguishable from schizophrenia, she also had lupus, an underlying and treatable autoimmune condition that was attacking her brain.
... a complex autoimmune disorder where the immune system turns on its own body, producing many antibodies that attack the skin, joints, kidneys or other organs. But April’s symptoms weren’t typical, and there were no obvious external signs of the disease; the lupus appeared to only be affecting her brain.
After months of targeted treatments — and more than two decades trapped in her mind — April woke up.
ERGO: underlying autoimmune and inflammatory processes may be more common in patients with a variety of psychiatric syndromes than previously believed.
undergone many courses of treatment — antipsychotics, mood stabilizers and electroconvulsive therapy — all to no avail.
WASI-II Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence
- Assessment of Cognitive Abilities: believed to help identify cognitive strengths and weaknesses in verbal comprehension and perceptual reasoning, which can be informative for planning educational/ behavioral interventions.
- Research: frequently used in autism research studies as measure of cognitive ability.
- Diagnosis: While the WASI-II itself isn't a dx tool for autism, it can be part of a broader diagnostic assessment as it is believed that understanding an individual's cognitive functioning can perhaps provide context for other symptoms or behaviors.