Welcome back to Reading the Research, where I trawl the Internet to find noteworthy research on autism and related subjects, then discuss it in brief with bits from my own life, research, and observations.
Today's article marks a great step forward in research. It has, in the past, been basically impossible to get useful MRI data on some people on the autism spectrum. As the article notes, it's really difficult for anyone to wear a giant helmet in a teensy tiny space, and then try not to move. When you factor in reduced communication skills, it becomes even harder, to the point of being all but impossible.
Except now it's not, because these researchers just did it. This is excellent.
It doesn't seem like very much, but here's the thing: science is only as good as its data. If your data doesn't properly represent the population you're trying to test, your results are also not going to represent that population. Almost all of our fMRI data is from autistic people with higher verbal skills and better blending skills. This skews our research, potentially making it only being relevant to those populations. I probably don't need to point out that this is undesirable.
Maybe some of the results translate to all autistic people... but maybe we're missing a fundamental part of the picture because those low-communication and lower IQ people aren't represented. And maybe we could learn a lot by just studying that population, now that we've shown we can.
I'll repeat this, because it's very important: science is only as good as its data. It does me good to see that now more of the autism spectrum can be represented. And because of that representation, be served better by science. The results of research turn into therapies, support services, educational programs, and eventually, bleed into how the general population treats us.
Which means a better world for all of us.
(If you like seeing the latest autism-relevant research, visit my Twitter, which has links and brief comments on studies that didn't make the cut for a Reading the Research articles!)
Except now it's not, because these researchers just did it. This is excellent.
It doesn't seem like very much, but here's the thing: science is only as good as its data. If your data doesn't properly represent the population you're trying to test, your results are also not going to represent that population. Almost all of our fMRI data is from autistic people with higher verbal skills and better blending skills. This skews our research, potentially making it only being relevant to those populations. I probably don't need to point out that this is undesirable.
Maybe some of the results translate to all autistic people... but maybe we're missing a fundamental part of the picture because those low-communication and lower IQ people aren't represented. And maybe we could learn a lot by just studying that population, now that we've shown we can.
I'll repeat this, because it's very important: science is only as good as its data. It does me good to see that now more of the autism spectrum can be represented. And because of that representation, be served better by science. The results of research turn into therapies, support services, educational programs, and eventually, bleed into how the general population treats us.
Which means a better world for all of us.
(If you like seeing the latest autism-relevant research, visit my Twitter, which has links and brief comments on studies that didn't make the cut for a Reading the Research articles!)
No comments:
Post a Comment