Autism struck by surprise

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-06/f-asb052715.php

Public Release: 2-Jun-2015
Frontiers

A new study shows that social and sensory overstimulation drives autistic behaviors. The study, conducted on rats exposed to a known risk factor in humans, supports the unconventional view of the autistic brain as hyper-functional, and offers new hope with therapeutic emphasis on paced and non-surprising environments tailored to the individual's sensitivity.

For decades, autism has been viewed as a form of mental retardation, a brain disease that destroys children's 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. Researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) completed a study that turns this traditional view of autism completely around.

The study demonstrates that, in rats exposed to a known autism risk factor, unpredictable environmental stimulation drives autistic symptoms at least as much as an impoverished environment does, and that predictable stimulation can prevent these symptoms. 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's sensitivity.

•••••

A stable, structured environment rich in stimuli could help children with autism, by providing a safe haven from an overload of sensory and emotional stimuli. In contrast, an environment with many unpredictable, changing stimuli could make their symptoms worse, raising anxiety and fear and making these children retract into a bubble," says Kamila Markram.

"Importantly, such constructive interactions with a safe and predictable world at key developmental sensitive periods early on could enhance coping and succeeding in subsequent less structured or unfamiliar contexts, and give place to a harmonious individual development," says Monica Favre, first author of the study.

•••••

This breakthrough suggests that if brain hyper-function can be diagnosed soon after birth, at least some of the debilitating effects of a supercharged brain can be prevented, not by environmental enrichment per se, but by highly specialized environmental stimulation that is safe, consistent, controlled, announced and only changed very gradually at the pace determined by each child