First Annotation

Was posted under Project 1

"What Causes Autism?." Autism Speaks, 31 Jan. 2018, https://www.autismspeaks.org/what-autism/learn-more-autism/what-causes-autism.

Autism Speaks is an organization that helps individuals with autism and the families of these individuals. They try to advance research for treatments for individuals on the spectrum. This article discusses the “genetic risk factors,” “environmental risk factors” and “differences in brain biology.” Autism Speaks tells us “we know that there’s no one cause of autism. Research suggests that autism develops from a combination of genetic and nongenetic, or environmental, influences.” This organizations spends a lot of time trying to help find research for this cause.

Within the three sections of this article: “genetic risk factors,” “environmental risk factors” and “differences in brain biology,” we get better incite within each one. In “Autism’s genetic rick factors,” we learn that “autism tends to run in families.” This happens through genes that get passed onto the children and that may change as they are passed on. In “Autism’s enviromental rick factors,” we learn that some of the increased risks are “advanced parent age” and “pregnancy and birth complications.” In “Differences in brain biology,” we learn “Some appear to affect how brain nerve cells, or neurons, communicate with each other.” These brain developments affect the entire brain regions.

As research becomes more available, we learn more information about the topic of autism. We can see that both Dryden- Edwards and Autism Speaks agree about this and acknowledge the fact that more research is important in the development of leaning about autism.

Dryden-Edwards, Roxanne. "Autism Spectrum Disorder (In Children and Adults)." MedicineNet, https://www.medicinenet.com/autism_and_communication/article.htm. Accessed 31 Jan 2018.

Dr. Roxanne Dryden-Edwards is a psychiatrist and used to be part of the Committee of Developmental Disabilities for the American Psychiatric Association. She has been on radio shows and television and at organizations making presentations about mental health issues. This website tells us that “Autism is a developmental disorder that is characterized by impaired development in communication, social interaction, and behavior.” This used to be mistaken for other diseases such as schizophrenia but as more research becomes available, people learn more and more.

"Brain Study Finds Evidence that Autism Involves Too Many Synapses." Autism Speaks, 31 Jan. 2018, https://www.autismspeaks.org/science/science-news/brain-study-finds-evidence-autism-involves-too-many-synapses.

Autism Speaks is an organization that helps individuals with autism and the families of these individuals. They try to advance research for treatments for individuals on the spectrum. Autism Speaks hope that “The study team also found that the medication rapamycin both restores normal synaptic pruning and reduces autism-like behaviors in a mouse model of autism. They propose that someday a similar medication might be used to treat autism after a child – or even adult – has been diagnosed.” In the recent brain-tissue study, it shows that many children with autism have many synapses and this medicine may be able to help with that.

Autism Speaks is helping fund “several studies on rapamycin,” and helping a treatment study that is using a medicine to help the “treatment of autism associated with tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC).”

Bilimoria, Parizad. "Breaking into the Autistic Brain." MedicineNet, http://www.childrenshospital.org/news-and-events/research-and-innovation-features/breaking-into-the-autistic-brain. Accessed 31 Jan 2018.

Parizad Bilimoria does not have a specified bio on this page but you can search her name and find information about her. This article is about a “prismatic research approach (that) sheds light on the biology of autism spectrum disorders.” To explain this further the author breaks up the article into thirteen subtitles. These subtitles are “Windows in development,” “Seeds for study,” “dysfunction at the junction,” “disconnected development,” “timing matters,” “changed connections,” “striking a balance,” “Learning from experience,” “A therapeutic window,” “Electrical anomalies,” “Brain waves,” “Testing for autism,” and “A prismatic approach.” By breaking up the article into these topics, the author is displaying that they have information for every title. Bilimoria is a director for the Conte center at Harvard and is a graduate from the Neuroscience program there.

AS mentioned earlier, Bilimoria uses thirteen subtitles to outline this article. She tells us “Autism is now recognized as a varied group of developmental disorders, known as autism spectrum disorders or ASDs.

"Autism Spectrum Disorder." Mayo Clinic, 31 Jan. 2018, https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/autism-spectrum-disorder/symptoms-causes/syc-20352928.

This article doesn’t have a listed author but does cite its sources which shows its credibility. Mayo Clinic is a non-profit organization that works to provide research and education to people who need it. It was recognized as the “best hospital in the nation for 2017-2018” by the U.S. News & World Report. This article tells us that “While there is no cure for autism spectrum disorder, intensive, early treatment can make a big difference in the lives of many children.” The article then goes on to tell us of symptoms and their patterns of behavior.

This article is broken up in “Symptoms,” “Causes,” “Risk factors,” “Complications, and “Prevention.” Some of the social communication and interaction signs they list for us are related to responding to their name, cuddling, eye contact and conversation and go as in depth as “Has difficulty recognizing nonverbal cues, such as interpreting other people's facial expressions, body postures or tone of voice.”