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 is a highly technical look into a theory of sensory hypersensitivity. Sensory differences are commonly found in autistic people, especially hyper (over) sensitivity, where the person experiences sensations like noise, touch, or smell much more strongly than others.
The obvious example is how I can hear basically every noise in the house even though almost all of them are irrelevant. Really, my house creaks sometimes when there are temperature differentials. This is not useful information, and I shouldn't need to consciously remember that. Also other people sometimes have conversations that don't include me, which is perfectly normal, and I neither want nor need to hear them.
This explanation (and excuse for me to gripe) aside, it appears a team at Massachusetts IT is closing in on why my brain does hypersensitivity thing to me. The key is a protein named Shank3, which supports your brain's internal communication.
I was surprised to see the Shank3 name again, since usually it's brought up in the context of specially designed mice who entirely lack the protein to test this or that medical intervention. The idea is that these designer mice can stand in for human subjects, since you can do really risky things to mice in the name of science, but not to humans. These Shank3 knockout mice display symptoms somewhat similar to "autistic symptoms," ie: avoidance of social interaction and repetitive behaviors.
They used these designer mice and tested whether they would react to very small amounts of input to their whiskers: stimulation so minimal that unmodified mice wouldn't detect it. The designer mice did detect it, which suggested strongly that these mice also have hypersensitivity. With that established, the team looked at their neurology and found that parts of the brain are hyperactive.
Interestingly, they did a second round with a different designer breed of mice. This version had the proper genetics to produce Shank3, and proper levels of that protein, BUT they designed it so they could turn off a single part of the brain's ability to use the Shank3 protein. That part of the brain, naturally, was the sensory bits. The results were identical: same hypersensitivity and hyperactivity in the brain.
The hope with all this is to figure out how to counter this hypersensitivity for people who are tortured by it, especially in a more targeted manner. The article points out that sedatives exist, but they're not really ideal for day-to-day use since they affect the whole brain.
Personally, I'd like the ability to just take something and have my brain stop informing me of every errant noise. It can be really horrifying, draining, and frustrating, especially in a busier place like the mall or a fitness facility or a school.
As a last, somewhat amusing-to-me note: this research suggests strongly that the designer breed of mouse, the Shank3 knockout mouse, is not in fact simulating an autistic human, but a human with hypersensitivities. I can't begin to tell you how much research that throws into question. While it's true that many autistic people suffer hypersensitive senses, many have hyposensitivities (undersensitivities, compared to hypersensitivity's oversensitivity) or a mix of both. Or neither.
Sometimes, that's science for you. Mistakes are made, and they're not found for years. Science is self-correcting, so future research can be built on this new understanding and better, more accurate, more useful results obtained. Hopefully sooner rather than later.
(Pst! If you like seeing the latest autism-relevant research, visit my Twitter, which has links and brief comments on studies that were interesting, but didn't get a whole Reading the Research article about them.)
Today's article is a highly technical look into a theory of sensory hypersensitivity. Sensory differences are commonly found in autistic people, especially hyper (over) sensitivity, where the person experiences sensations like noise, touch, or smell much more strongly than others.
The obvious example is how I can hear basically every noise in the house even though almost all of them are irrelevant. Really, my house creaks sometimes when there are temperature differentials. This is not useful information, and I shouldn't need to consciously remember that. Also other people sometimes have conversations that don't include me, which is perfectly normal, and I neither want nor need to hear them.
This explanation (and excuse for me to gripe) aside, it appears a team at Massachusetts IT is closing in on why my brain does hypersensitivity thing to me. The key is a protein named Shank3, which supports your brain's internal communication.
I was surprised to see the Shank3 name again, since usually it's brought up in the context of specially designed mice who entirely lack the protein to test this or that medical intervention. The idea is that these designer mice can stand in for human subjects, since you can do really risky things to mice in the name of science, but not to humans. These Shank3 knockout mice display symptoms somewhat similar to "autistic symptoms," ie: avoidance of social interaction and repetitive behaviors.
They used these designer mice and tested whether they would react to very small amounts of input to their whiskers: stimulation so minimal that unmodified mice wouldn't detect it. The designer mice did detect it, which suggested strongly that these mice also have hypersensitivity. With that established, the team looked at their neurology and found that parts of the brain are hyperactive.
Interestingly, they did a second round with a different designer breed of mice. This version had the proper genetics to produce Shank3, and proper levels of that protein, BUT they designed it so they could turn off a single part of the brain's ability to use the Shank3 protein. That part of the brain, naturally, was the sensory bits. The results were identical: same hypersensitivity and hyperactivity in the brain.
The hope with all this is to figure out how to counter this hypersensitivity for people who are tortured by it, especially in a more targeted manner. The article points out that sedatives exist, but they're not really ideal for day-to-day use since they affect the whole brain.
Personally, I'd like the ability to just take something and have my brain stop informing me of every errant noise. It can be really horrifying, draining, and frustrating, especially in a busier place like the mall or a fitness facility or a school.
As a last, somewhat amusing-to-me note: this research suggests strongly that the designer breed of mouse, the Shank3 knockout mouse, is not in fact simulating an autistic human, but a human with hypersensitivities. I can't begin to tell you how much research that throws into question. While it's true that many autistic people suffer hypersensitive senses, many have hyposensitivities (undersensitivities, compared to hypersensitivity's oversensitivity) or a mix of both. Or neither.
Sometimes, that's science for you. Mistakes are made, and they're not found for years. Science is self-correcting, so future research can be built on this new understanding and better, more accurate, more useful results obtained. Hopefully sooner rather than later.
(Pst! If you like seeing the latest autism-relevant research, visit my Twitter, which has links and brief comments on studies that were interesting, but didn't get a whole Reading the Research article about them.)
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