{"id":2306,"date":"2015-06-12T04:37:33","date_gmt":"2015-06-12T08:37:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thiscontemplativelife.com\/?p=2306"},"modified":"2015-06-12T04:37:33","modified_gmt":"2015-06-12T08:37:33","slug":"autistic-brain-is-hyper-functional-needs-predictable-paced-environments-study-finds-kurzweilai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thiscontemplativelife.com\/index.php\/2015\/06\/12\/autistic-brain-is-hyper-functional-needs-predictable-paced-environments-study-finds-kurzweilai\/","title":{"rendered":"Autistic brain is hyper-functional \u2014 needs predictable, paced environments, study finds | KurzweilAI"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p>A new open-access study shows that social and sensory overstimulation drives autistic behaviors and supports the unconventional view that the autistic brain is actually hyper-functional. The research offers new hope, with therapeutic emphasis on paced and non-surprising environments tailored to the individual\u2019s sensitivity.<\/p>\n<p>For decades, autism has been viewed as a form of mental retardation, a brain disease that destroys children\u2019s ability to learn, feel and empathize, thus leaving them disconnected from our complex and ever-changing social and sensory surroundings. From this perspective, the main kind of therapeutic intervention in autism to date aims at strongly engaging the child to revive brain functions believed dormant.<\/p>\n<p>Now researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) have completed a study that turns this traditional view of autism completely around. The study, conducted on rats exposed to a known risk factor in humans, demonstrates that unpredictable environmental stimulation drives autistic symptoms at least as much as an impoverished environment does. <\/p>\n<p>It also shows that predictable stimulation can prevent these symptoms. <\/p>\n<p>The study is also evidence for a drastic shift in the clinical approach to autism, away from the idea of a damaged brain that demands extensive stimulation. Instead, autistic brains may be hyper-functional and thus require enriched environments that are non-surprising, structured, safe, and tailored to a particular individual\u2019s sensitivity.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Source: <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.kurzweilai.net\/autistic-brain-is-hyper-functional-needs-predictable-paced-environments-study-finds\">Autistic brain is hyper-functional \u2014 needs predictable, paced environments, study finds | KurzweilAI<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A new open-access study shows that social and sensory overstimulation drives autistic behaviors and supports the unconventional view that the autistic brain is actually hyper-functional&#8230;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8],"tags":[56,415,477],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thiscontemplativelife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2306"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thiscontemplativelife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thiscontemplativelife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thiscontemplativelife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thiscontemplativelife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thiscontemplativelife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2306\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thiscontemplativelife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thiscontemplativelife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thiscontemplativelife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}