How People with Autism Experience the World Essays -- Science Scientif

How People with Autism Experience the World Many of us have heard of the neurological disorder called autism, and have a general sense of what the term "autism" means and all of the typical behaviors that belong in its category. Yet, I must question how many of us out there who do take an interest in autism really understand how having this disorder can totally distort one's perception of what one experiences in the world. A person with autism senses things differently than we normally do, and also responds to them in other ways – what we would call "abnormal behaviors". Why is this so? According to scientists, MRI research studies have shown that the brains of autistic individuals have particular abnormalities in the cerebellum, brain stem, hippocampus, amygdala, the limbic system, and frontal cortex (7). This provides substantial evidence that autistic behaviors must be in some way caused by these abnormalities. The problem is that we do not know exactly how or why these abnormalities cause someone with autism to experience the world differently than we do. This underlying issue of autism has always greatly intrigued me, and yet the topic of sensory integrative dysfunction in autism has been overlooked for many years. Articles and documents addressing this feature of autism have begun to appear only recently. While conducting research for my paper, I found it a challenge to find articles that specifically talked about this topic that I desired so much to learn about. Thus, the ultimate goal of my discussion is to reveal a misunderstood, hidden world – the complicated sensory dysfunctions that underlie autistic spectrum disorder. What have we found out so far about how people with autism experience the world? Al... ...s and Communication Disorders http://www.autismtoday.com/articles/Auditory_Processing_Problems.htm 8)Autism Today Page, An Inside View of Autism http://www.autismtoday.com/articles/An_Inside_View_of_Autism.htm 9)Pub Med Page, Nicotinic Receptor Abnormalities in the Cerebellar Cortex in Autism http://www.brainbank.org/HtmNew/Abstracts/LeeM.html 10)Pub Med Page, Stereological Evidence of Abnormal Cortical Organization in Individuals with Autism http://www.brainbank.org/HtmNew/Abstracts/Hutsler.html 11)Autism and Related Conditions Page, Sensory and Motor Disorders http://www.ratbag.demon.co.uk/anna/asa/definitions/sensory.html 12)National Center for Biotechnology Information Page, Neurofunctional Mechanisms in Autism http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ 13)Autism Today Page, Sensory Disorder http://www.autismtoday.com/articles/Sensory_Disorder.htm