... AND NOW THEY KNOW THAT AUTISM IS LINKED WITH RESPONCES TO THE ENVIRONMENT AND LEARNING!
The question of course is, do they know what that means or will they make again the wrong assumptions that support their wrong claims and offer again the wrong solutions? One thing is sure, if all the wrongs offer them riches, I already know what the outcome will be...
Autism Genes That Control Early Learning
New study confirms importance of early behavioral intervention in treating the disorder (how wish we could find a cure for the Science Disorder at hand...)
By Nikhil Swaminathan
A new genetic analysis of large, inbred Middle Eastern families found that genes linked to a heightened risk of autism are crucial to a child's ability to learn.
A group of scientists, led by a team at Children's Hospital Boston, has pinpointed six new genes that may contribute to autism, a disorder characterized by asocial behavior, difficulty communicating and repetitive actions that affects an estimated one in 150 children born in the U.S. each year.
They report in Science that all of the linked genes are involved in forming new and stronger connections, called synapses, between nerve cells in the brain, which is the biological basis of learning and memory formation."We're showing, on the one hand, that autism seems to have a large genetic component," says study co-author Christopher Walsh, chief of genetics at Children's Hospital. "But, the genes that are involved are actually those that are involved in responding to the environment and learning."
The findings, Walsh says, reinforces the importance of early diagnosis of autism and intervention, particularly behavioral therapy and learning in enriched environments through repeated activities. Performing these sorts of tasks may help strengthen cellular connections, compensating for the malfunctioning genes.The researchers studied 88 families in which one or more children had been diagnosed with autism, and the parents of each autistic child were cousins.
Marrying second and third—and even first cousins—is not uncommon in the Middle East, and by studying such families scientists were able to track recessive genetic traits (caused by mutations that only affect individuals with two copies of the flawed genes). Such traits occur far more frequently in inbred families than in others.The team found a total of six mutations affecting genes that had previously not been linked to autism.
The mutations came in the form of deletions, where part or all of both copies of the genes were missing in a child with the disorder. All of the genes are known to be involved in parts of the same process: creating and strengthening synapses.Normally, when nerve cells (neurons) activate in response to an environmental factor (such as processing a new face or a new sound), synapses between two active cells change to provide stronger connections so the cells can pass on information more efficiently.
As the brain develops, new connections are continuously formed among nerve cells, reinforced and, in some instances, broken as the brain starts to mature and divvy up its different functions to specific groups of neurons.
According to the findings, "All of the relevant mutations could disrupt the formation of vital neural connections during a critical period when experience is shaping the brain," says Thomas Insel, director of the National Institute for Mental Health (NIMH) in Bethesda, Md. To wit, most children are diagnosed with autism between the ages of one and three years of age.Walsh says the team believes these deletions—which in most cases found here only remove some, but not all, of the DNA that makes up a gene—may mean that the genes can regain some of their normal function.
In fact, some of these genes may just be switched off. "This presents the possibility that in some kids we could get the gene going again without necessarily having to put it back in the brain," he says.Jim Sutcliffe, a molecular physiologist at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., in a Science editorial notes that the majority of autism research is geared toward prenatal development, even though the brain continues to develop well after a child is born. "Experience and environmental input play an important role in subsequent development," he says.
He calls the notion that learning in early life is disrupted by these autism genes "an intriguing proposal," but says that further research is needed to validate it.
Dan Geschwind, a neurologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, says that to test the hypothesis that autism genes affect synaptic strength, it would be important to examine the 20 to 30 other genes that have been implicated in autism and see which ones also play a role in strengthening neuronal connections. "If its a significant proportion," he says, "that would provide support for the hypothesis being put forward."
Walsh notes that many children diagnosed with autism tend to show vast improvement when they are placed in environments that allow them to practice learning repetitively. He says that these activities essentially train the neurons to make up for their lost function."Our work reinforces the importance of early intervention and behavioral therapy," he says. "The more we understand about genetics the more we understand how important the environment is."
Gee! Not much hope here either. The ISS (Idiotic Scientist Syndrome) has strike yet again!!!
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=autism-genes-that-control
woensdag 25 maart 2009
zaterdag 14 maart 2009
How Society Ate all Human Beings. A true story!
I am Autistic.
That is about enough to require from me to look at life in a way that others do not. That includes society and social rules. They are utterly unfair because they are simply based on supporting the ones on the top of the social ladder, while making it as hard as possible for the ones underneath, the social underdogs.
After all, all societies, from the very first at the dawn of the so called civilization, until today, needed "slaves" to endlessly turn the wheels of fortune for the ones who sat comfortably at the top. This is a fact that we are forced every day through the mass media to ignore if not completely forget.
What rules is not Love or compation, not even God anymore, not even we humans. We do not rule. We are all slaves. What rules is money. As simple as that. Whoever has it is at the topo of the social ladder, benefits from all the social rules, and struggles to keep that position of priveledge!
Those who do not have it, struggle to fill in the gap with notions such as love, compassion and God. As John Lennon very wisely said, God is the measure of ones hardships. The more the hardshiops, the more we turn to God for help and mostly it seems what we ask is ... MONEY!!!
Now, you will say that there are many people who have money and also pray to God. Now that I feel is a huge lie. One of those social things that people use to interact in a proper way. If people with money pray is only because they are either afraid they might lose that money, or because they have some health issue they can't seem to solve with money, or they are one of these regious fanatics who make money from "selling" faith and God!!!
Oh dear! Did I step on someone's toes? Well, excuuuuuuse me! Maybe your toes were in the wrong place. So mind where you keep them next time. Maybe they are too long and take someone else's space, or simply stand on the way. After all they are YOUR toes so keep your eyes on the ground looking out for on coming feet!!!
Yes, that is the kind of obnoxious way that Autistics tend to think and get in the way of society's rules and status quo. Now, let's imagine that once society and the human beings were friends. Walked side to side caring for each other. One day society realized that the human being had some flaws, some weaknesses that were easily used, easily exploited to own's favor. That is when society began abusing what was meant to help and protect: the human being. Instead it made a new friend. This new friend was greed!
That is what caused society's old friend, the human being to change tactics. It slowly began to be born ... Autistic! This way the human being was not as vulnerable to society's rules and influence. The Autistic human had a free mind and did not feel the need to follow the herd of society nor to act socially. This made society vert upset. The more Autistic humans were born, the less society could exploit them. "Aha!" Society thought, "I have to find a way to claim back my influnce and control!" But that was not as easy as it sounded. Society had to find some collaborators and make them execute a dark and evil plan.
The plan was simple, "devide and rule" it was called and all society had to do was to turn human beings against each other. Not just strangers against each other, that was very easy and it was done daily through greed and brainwashing. Now society had to strike deeper, in the heart of the human family. Society would not do that alone. It has slaves willing to do the dirty work. They are called professionals who, as a reward for their obedience, they are granted high ranking places in the social pecking order, and are given lots of money and even more power, since we all now that power can drive anyone crazy...
These professionals had to come up with a plan to separate the family. First they thought out the family's ranks of weakness. The child was by far the weakest. Bingo! Their strategy was to separate the child from the parents, that way the family would fall a pile of cards. Easy pickings.
Then they came up with a label. Something very horrible, an illness so awful, a disorder, an abnormality, a stigma!!! They did not have to look far for a name. Autism. It sounded Greek, so it had a sort if historical and cultural aura, it was easily pronounced and it sold like fresh baker rolls!
But how? Tell a parent that his or her child is different than the rest, convince them that it will never make it as the rest, allow them to fall into the trap that what causes this difference is something so horrible that has NO CUR, and ... tadah!!! Parents believe it. They want to have the same kid like their neighbor has, they have the same car like the neighbor, they live in teh same house like their neighbor's, they eat the same junk like the neighbor, so why not have the same child like the neighbor???
This sounded so, bad so unfair! Money. They could "buy" a new child. No, that is not possible, what then? They would buy a cure! Yes, a cure. Find us a cure!!! Here is all our money but please, pretty please, give us our child back... but please... make sure it is exactly the same like the one the neighbors have!!! We do not want one that is different.
That was the day when the parents sold their kids to the professionals who labeleld them abnormal and defective, and took the parent's money to fix them and one day, maybe one return them to the parents...
They just forgot one thing these professionals. They forgot the kids. They forgot that the kids grow up and one day can use a computer and one day find a way to break their silence and speak out and defend themselves and accuse the professioanals and the greedy rotten society for doing what it did. That day came, but no one listened. They were all too scared, too brainwashed, to enslaved to listen or care.
They kept screaming for a cure to the epidemic, they were pilling up all their money and asking for more from the UN and all Governments, to stop this curse! To find a cure, to stop Autism from kidnapping their children and eating them up.
They were screaming and yelling louder than any Autistic adult could speak, so no one listened to them, and that is how society won the dirty game.
The End (of the decent human beings)
ZEITGEITS - PART 2
That is about enough to require from me to look at life in a way that others do not. That includes society and social rules. They are utterly unfair because they are simply based on supporting the ones on the top of the social ladder, while making it as hard as possible for the ones underneath, the social underdogs.
After all, all societies, from the very first at the dawn of the so called civilization, until today, needed "slaves" to endlessly turn the wheels of fortune for the ones who sat comfortably at the top. This is a fact that we are forced every day through the mass media to ignore if not completely forget.
What rules is not Love or compation, not even God anymore, not even we humans. We do not rule. We are all slaves. What rules is money. As simple as that. Whoever has it is at the topo of the social ladder, benefits from all the social rules, and struggles to keep that position of priveledge!
Those who do not have it, struggle to fill in the gap with notions such as love, compassion and God. As John Lennon very wisely said, God is the measure of ones hardships. The more the hardshiops, the more we turn to God for help and mostly it seems what we ask is ... MONEY!!!
Now, you will say that there are many people who have money and also pray to God. Now that I feel is a huge lie. One of those social things that people use to interact in a proper way. If people with money pray is only because they are either afraid they might lose that money, or because they have some health issue they can't seem to solve with money, or they are one of these regious fanatics who make money from "selling" faith and God!!!
Oh dear! Did I step on someone's toes? Well, excuuuuuuse me! Maybe your toes were in the wrong place. So mind where you keep them next time. Maybe they are too long and take someone else's space, or simply stand on the way. After all they are YOUR toes so keep your eyes on the ground looking out for on coming feet!!!
Yes, that is the kind of obnoxious way that Autistics tend to think and get in the way of society's rules and status quo. Now, let's imagine that once society and the human beings were friends. Walked side to side caring for each other. One day society realized that the human being had some flaws, some weaknesses that were easily used, easily exploited to own's favor. That is when society began abusing what was meant to help and protect: the human being. Instead it made a new friend. This new friend was greed!
That is what caused society's old friend, the human being to change tactics. It slowly began to be born ... Autistic! This way the human being was not as vulnerable to society's rules and influence. The Autistic human had a free mind and did not feel the need to follow the herd of society nor to act socially. This made society vert upset. The more Autistic humans were born, the less society could exploit them. "Aha!" Society thought, "I have to find a way to claim back my influnce and control!" But that was not as easy as it sounded. Society had to find some collaborators and make them execute a dark and evil plan.
The plan was simple, "devide and rule" it was called and all society had to do was to turn human beings against each other. Not just strangers against each other, that was very easy and it was done daily through greed and brainwashing. Now society had to strike deeper, in the heart of the human family. Society would not do that alone. It has slaves willing to do the dirty work. They are called professionals who, as a reward for their obedience, they are granted high ranking places in the social pecking order, and are given lots of money and even more power, since we all now that power can drive anyone crazy...
These professionals had to come up with a plan to separate the family. First they thought out the family's ranks of weakness. The child was by far the weakest. Bingo! Their strategy was to separate the child from the parents, that way the family would fall a pile of cards. Easy pickings.
Then they came up with a label. Something very horrible, an illness so awful, a disorder, an abnormality, a stigma!!! They did not have to look far for a name. Autism. It sounded Greek, so it had a sort if historical and cultural aura, it was easily pronounced and it sold like fresh baker rolls!
But how? Tell a parent that his or her child is different than the rest, convince them that it will never make it as the rest, allow them to fall into the trap that what causes this difference is something so horrible that has NO CUR, and ... tadah!!! Parents believe it. They want to have the same kid like their neighbor has, they have the same car like the neighbor, they live in teh same house like their neighbor's, they eat the same junk like the neighbor, so why not have the same child like the neighbor???
This sounded so, bad so unfair! Money. They could "buy" a new child. No, that is not possible, what then? They would buy a cure! Yes, a cure. Find us a cure!!! Here is all our money but please, pretty please, give us our child back... but please... make sure it is exactly the same like the one the neighbors have!!! We do not want one that is different.
That was the day when the parents sold their kids to the professionals who labeleld them abnormal and defective, and took the parent's money to fix them and one day, maybe one return them to the parents...
They just forgot one thing these professionals. They forgot the kids. They forgot that the kids grow up and one day can use a computer and one day find a way to break their silence and speak out and defend themselves and accuse the professioanals and the greedy rotten society for doing what it did. That day came, but no one listened. They were all too scared, too brainwashed, to enslaved to listen or care.
They kept screaming for a cure to the epidemic, they were pilling up all their money and asking for more from the UN and all Governments, to stop this curse! To find a cure, to stop Autism from kidnapping their children and eating them up.
They were screaming and yelling louder than any Autistic adult could speak, so no one listened to them, and that is how society won the dirty game.
The End (of the decent human beings)
ZEITGEITS - PART 2
woensdag 4 maart 2009
Stigmatized with Autism for EVER!!!
From Medscape Family Medicine
My comments are at the end of this article!
The Government Push for Electronic Medical Records
Posted Feb. 24, 2009
Author: Nancy R. Terry
The economic stimulus plan currently being considered by Congress allocates $20 billion to health information technology such as electronic medical records (EMRs). Recent postings on Medscape Physician Connect (MPC), a physicians-only discussion board, offer frank opinions about the utility of EMRs in clinical practice -- opinions that are decidedly mixed.
"EMR is the worst thing that has happened to me professionally in over 25 years of practice. My care of patients is impeded and the quality of my care is worse as a direct effect of the introduction of EMR," says a MPC contributor who championed the installation of an EMR system for his physician group.
"I absolutely love our EMR," says a nephrologist. "It has improved the quality of our practice immensely. I spent a lot of time customizing for our practice, but it was worth it. Everything is point and click. To improve care and cost, all patients need a Web-based collection of medical records that include hospitalization, lab reports, x-rays, as well as office notes. That would be the ultimate care."
Physicians who are dissatisfied with EMR systems cite loss of productivity, the negative impact on patient care, and high maintenance requirements. Physicians who have embraced EMRs cite the increased efficiency the systems have brought to their practices. EMRs tend to get high marks from subspecialists and low marks from primary care physicians.
Some of the MPC physicians least satisfied with their EMR systems are those practicing at large healthcare companies or medical centers. "My hospital solicited medical staff support for EMR," says one MPC contributor. "After implementation, administration took over and now EMR is solely for the benefit of medical records as a storage device. To hell with the medical and nursing staffs. RNs are input clerics rather than beside nurses."
"The very few efficiencies were all on the administrative side," says a regional medical director who helped bring an EMR system to a nationwide healthcare company. "A good sales pitch with nice graphics and testimonials sell it, then the clinical staff is left to suffer."
"EMRs need to address work flows and clinical efficiencies and not seek to provide administrative support," says a general practice physician. "Unfortunately, the administrators are the ones with the time and energy. The rest of us are seeing patients."
In smaller practices, issues of EMR maintenance and support infringe upon patient care. "In my clinic," says a family medicine physician, "provider meetings are completely dominated by EMR issues and problems. There is virtually never time left for discussing topics pertinent to improving patient care."
In speaking about their day-to-day experience with EMRs, primary care physicians complain that entering patient information is cumbersome and time consuming, often because of a template-based system that does not reflect the patient encounter.
"The assumption of the EMR is that you already know the diagnosis when the patient arrives." says an MPC contributor. "This may be better for specialty care, but in primary care, patients come in with fatigue, rash, insomnia, diarrhea, and cough. It's difficult to enter all this until after the visit."
An internist who describes herself as "tech savvy" says that her system's scripted entries for patient information are inadequate. "If you free-text, it is much more time consuming. And we are discouraged from free-texting by our administration because it doesn't trigger adequate billing codes. Not only has it reduced my time with patients, it has added an extra 2 to 3 hours of work each night from home."
The Choice of Systems
"My advice to practitioners," says one MPC contributor, "is wait for a decent EMR that produces useful notes that accurately describe a patient encounter in a way that helps a clinician."
Waiting may not be an option for much longer, however. One provision of the government stimulus plan would impose reduced payments on physicians who are not "meaningfully using" information technology. Whatever is meant by the provision's phrasing, one thing is clear: the push is on to go electronic. Physicians must learn how to make information technology work for them. One EMR expert says that it starts with the choice of systems. "Primary care practices should stay away from templates and stick to a new program by Praxis® [Infor-Med Medical Information Systems, Inc., Woodland Hills, California] that uses pattern recognition of similar cases as well as rare cases. It decreases the workload immensely. For specialty practices, I recommend templates, and Visionary™ Dream EHR [Visionary Medical Systems, Inc., Tampa, Florida] is excellent in being very user friendly," says an MPC contributor whose research in medical management focuses on EMR systems.
Another MPC contributor notes that the technologically adventurous can customize an EMR system by using open-source software. In open-source systems, he explains, the source code needed for programming is included in the software, making the program infinitely adaptable. "When you buy most proprietary software, you have to accept the functions that come with it, as designed by the developers. With open-source systems, you can modify the software to your heart's content."
Is a Choice of Systems Really a Choice?
For some physicians, however, EMR systems remain a nonissue, and the heavy government funding of healthcare information technologies is nothing more than a smokescreen obscuring the real issues in primary care.
"The government and the public are not able to deal with the real problems facing medical practice and the real solutions necessary to turn it around (ie, reasonable reimbursement rates, malpractice reform, regulation of the unscrupulous practices of the insurance industry)," says an otolaryngologist. He adds that once healthcare information technology is "fully implemented and solves nothing, we can start to talk about real reform and real answers."
My comments
If you read this article and do not feel you understand the topic "Stigmatized with Autism for EVER!!!" and the connection with the Government Push for Electronic Medical Records, then think that children that are diagnosed as autistic and thus bear the stigma of having the worst disorder of the human kind, will be known to all who have access to their medical records, including those who have access to electronic records whether they are medically trained or not and whether they have an oath of secrecy and protection of privacy towards their patients.
Besides, why is the Government so keen in keeping records of all we do or have, including our Medical records?
To find out this answer, you need to devote an hour or two to watch this documentary. Then you will know why the Government is pushing (if not shoving) to ensure all info is electronically registered.
What seems to be for your protection as patient and as human being might after all look like an endless removal of freedoms and our right for privacy. So be careful what you wish for, cause you just might get it!!!
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4573704334162675487
My comments are at the end of this article!
The Government Push for Electronic Medical Records
Posted Feb. 24, 2009
Author: Nancy R. Terry
The economic stimulus plan currently being considered by Congress allocates $20 billion to health information technology such as electronic medical records (EMRs). Recent postings on Medscape Physician Connect (MPC), a physicians-only discussion board, offer frank opinions about the utility of EMRs in clinical practice -- opinions that are decidedly mixed.
"EMR is the worst thing that has happened to me professionally in over 25 years of practice. My care of patients is impeded and the quality of my care is worse as a direct effect of the introduction of EMR," says a MPC contributor who championed the installation of an EMR system for his physician group.
"I absolutely love our EMR," says a nephrologist. "It has improved the quality of our practice immensely. I spent a lot of time customizing for our practice, but it was worth it. Everything is point and click. To improve care and cost, all patients need a Web-based collection of medical records that include hospitalization, lab reports, x-rays, as well as office notes. That would be the ultimate care."
Physicians who are dissatisfied with EMR systems cite loss of productivity, the negative impact on patient care, and high maintenance requirements. Physicians who have embraced EMRs cite the increased efficiency the systems have brought to their practices. EMRs tend to get high marks from subspecialists and low marks from primary care physicians.
Some of the MPC physicians least satisfied with their EMR systems are those practicing at large healthcare companies or medical centers. "My hospital solicited medical staff support for EMR," says one MPC contributor. "After implementation, administration took over and now EMR is solely for the benefit of medical records as a storage device. To hell with the medical and nursing staffs. RNs are input clerics rather than beside nurses."
"The very few efficiencies were all on the administrative side," says a regional medical director who helped bring an EMR system to a nationwide healthcare company. "A good sales pitch with nice graphics and testimonials sell it, then the clinical staff is left to suffer."
"EMRs need to address work flows and clinical efficiencies and not seek to provide administrative support," says a general practice physician. "Unfortunately, the administrators are the ones with the time and energy. The rest of us are seeing patients."
In smaller practices, issues of EMR maintenance and support infringe upon patient care. "In my clinic," says a family medicine physician, "provider meetings are completely dominated by EMR issues and problems. There is virtually never time left for discussing topics pertinent to improving patient care."
In speaking about their day-to-day experience with EMRs, primary care physicians complain that entering patient information is cumbersome and time consuming, often because of a template-based system that does not reflect the patient encounter.
"The assumption of the EMR is that you already know the diagnosis when the patient arrives." says an MPC contributor. "This may be better for specialty care, but in primary care, patients come in with fatigue, rash, insomnia, diarrhea, and cough. It's difficult to enter all this until after the visit."
An internist who describes herself as "tech savvy" says that her system's scripted entries for patient information are inadequate. "If you free-text, it is much more time consuming. And we are discouraged from free-texting by our administration because it doesn't trigger adequate billing codes. Not only has it reduced my time with patients, it has added an extra 2 to 3 hours of work each night from home."
The Choice of Systems
"My advice to practitioners," says one MPC contributor, "is wait for a decent EMR that produces useful notes that accurately describe a patient encounter in a way that helps a clinician."
Waiting may not be an option for much longer, however. One provision of the government stimulus plan would impose reduced payments on physicians who are not "meaningfully using" information technology. Whatever is meant by the provision's phrasing, one thing is clear: the push is on to go electronic. Physicians must learn how to make information technology work for them. One EMR expert says that it starts with the choice of systems. "Primary care practices should stay away from templates and stick to a new program by Praxis® [Infor-Med Medical Information Systems, Inc., Woodland Hills, California] that uses pattern recognition of similar cases as well as rare cases. It decreases the workload immensely. For specialty practices, I recommend templates, and Visionary™ Dream EHR [Visionary Medical Systems, Inc., Tampa, Florida] is excellent in being very user friendly," says an MPC contributor whose research in medical management focuses on EMR systems.
Another MPC contributor notes that the technologically adventurous can customize an EMR system by using open-source software. In open-source systems, he explains, the source code needed for programming is included in the software, making the program infinitely adaptable. "When you buy most proprietary software, you have to accept the functions that come with it, as designed by the developers. With open-source systems, you can modify the software to your heart's content."
Is a Choice of Systems Really a Choice?
For some physicians, however, EMR systems remain a nonissue, and the heavy government funding of healthcare information technologies is nothing more than a smokescreen obscuring the real issues in primary care.
"The government and the public are not able to deal with the real problems facing medical practice and the real solutions necessary to turn it around (ie, reasonable reimbursement rates, malpractice reform, regulation of the unscrupulous practices of the insurance industry)," says an otolaryngologist. He adds that once healthcare information technology is "fully implemented and solves nothing, we can start to talk about real reform and real answers."
My comments
If you read this article and do not feel you understand the topic "Stigmatized with Autism for EVER!!!" and the connection with the Government Push for Electronic Medical Records, then think that children that are diagnosed as autistic and thus bear the stigma of having the worst disorder of the human kind, will be known to all who have access to their medical records, including those who have access to electronic records whether they are medically trained or not and whether they have an oath of secrecy and protection of privacy towards their patients.
Besides, why is the Government so keen in keeping records of all we do or have, including our Medical records?
To find out this answer, you need to devote an hour or two to watch this documentary. Then you will know why the Government is pushing (if not shoving) to ensure all info is electronically registered.
What seems to be for your protection as patient and as human being might after all look like an endless removal of freedoms and our right for privacy. So be careful what you wish for, cause you just might get it!!!
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4573704334162675487
maandag 2 maart 2009
Are Scientists Studying Autism Smart?
To be able to answer this very important question, let's first find out about octopuses. This is because the behaviour of an autistic child bears a great deal of resemblance with the behaviour of a "bored" octopus playing with a pill bottle...
Unfortunately, the scientists studying autistic children do not seem to have the same level of intelligence or attention to details as the ones studying octopuses. Could it be that their idea that "all humans are one and the same" blocks their mental abilities? Or is it just that their intelligence passes first through their bank account and social status?
More research is needed to establish which correlation is affecting scientists from seeing the intelligence behind the autistic child's repetitive behaviour!
Are octopuses smart?
The mischievous mollusk that flooded a Santa Monica aquarium is not the first MENSA-worthy octopus
By Brendan Borrell
On Thursday morning, workers filing into the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium in California were surprised to find 200 gallons (750 liters) of seawater soaking into their spanking new, ecologically sensitive flooring. It turns out that a curious two-spotted octopus had disassembled a water recycling valve and directed a tube to spew out of the tank for about 10 hours, according to the Los Angeles Times.
"It found something loose and just pulled on it," the aquarium's education manager Tara Treiber told the Times. "They are very smart creatures."
Octopuses, some 300 species of which inhabit tropical waters around the world, can change colors, squirt out poison, and exert a force greater than their own body weight. But calling the eight-armed cousin of your garden snail "smart" seems a bit of a stretch. In fact, the animals are part of an elite group of slimy mollusks known as cephalopods that range from giant squid to the shelled nautilus and all have remarkably large "brains"—at least for creatures sans backbones.
Scientists have found that octopuses can navigate their way through mazes, solve problems quickly and remember those solutions, at least for the short term. To find out more about octopus intelligence, we spoke to Jennifer Mather, a comparative psychologist at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada. Mather has been studying octopuses for 35 years in an effort to gain insight into the evolution of intelligence. While most scientists hold octopuses in high regard, it's worth noting that not everyone shares Mather's lofty assessment of their intellectual abilities and personalities.[An edited transcript of the interview follows.]
Are octopuses smart?
Yes, but of course one has to ask what that means. I would say intelligence means learning information and using the information that you've learned.
So, how do you know they are smart?
We observed how octopuses figure out how to open clams and what sort of flexibility and variety they have. We give them clams and mussels in order to figure out which they like best. They are very strong, but we found they prefer mussels because mussels are easier to open. They switched to clams when we put the clams on a half shell. They clearly made a decision to go with what was easiest. We noticed along the way that yanking them open wasn't the only thing the octopuses could do to open them.
They have a cartilaginous beak, which looks a lot like a parrot's beak, and they could chip at the edge of the clamshell and then they could inject poison and weaken the clam. Or they actually have a salivary papilla, and they can drill a hole to inject the toxin that way in the stronger clams. They were selective about what technique they would use with what species. We decided we would cheat on them: We took one of the easier ones and wired them shut. They switched techniques according to what would work best. Of course, this doesn't sound hard to you because you're a human, but most simple animals keep trying the same technique.
What other indications are there that octopuses are intelligent?
Octopuses play, and play is something that intelligent animals do. At the Seattle Aquarium, my colleague Roland Anderson and I figured out a situation in which they might play: a boring situation. We gave them an empty tank and a floating pill bottle and waited to see what would happen. Nothing happened the first time, but, after the fourth time, a couple animals did something we call "play."
The octopus blew a jet of water at the pill bottle and that caused it to go over a water jet in the tank and come back to the octopus. These two individual animals did it in a sequence over 20 times. That's just exactly the kind of thing we do when we bounce a ball. When you bounce a ball, you are not trying to get rid of the ball, you are trying to figure out what you can do with the ball.
My note: When the above happens with an autistic child's play they call it "stereotypical behaviour"!!! How about calling it an intelligent child's play while trying to figure out all one can do with a ball, a ring, a car, a piece of paper, a piece of string, anything and everything... So, tell me now "Are the Scientists studying Autism Smart???" Any ideas? Anyone???
Octopuses also have personalities.
We used the same kind of setup people use when they want to study human personalities. You just ask what do the animals commonly encounter during the day in different situations and look at the variability. We put them in three common situations: alerting (opening the top of the tank), threatening (touching the octopus with a test tube brush) and feeding (the octopus was given a crab to munch). This takes awhile because we tested 33 animals, each for two weeks. We found there are three dimensions and we settled for names: activity, reactivity and avoidance. Avoidance is how shy you are. Activity is if you are very active or passive. And reactivity indicates whether you are very emotional or more blasé. Octopuses can have any mix of those traits. We didn't take it any further, but there's a former graduate student in Australia looking at the extent to which personality affects ecology.
Do octopuses have brains?
The molluscan nervous system has a bunch of paired ganglia (a cluster of nerve cells), which in an animal like a clam or a snail are not very big and are widely distributed through the body. They control different functions and are located in different areas. Well, the cephalopods—that's the octopuses, squids and cuttlefish—they are unique in that all these ganglias have condensed so they form a centralized brain. The other thing that is unique amongst the mollusks is there are two areas of this brain that have developed that are specialized for memory storage. It's not just that the brain is larger and condensed, but they have areas of the brain dedicated to learning. That's the kind of thing we humans have, but it’s a completely different brain. By invertebrate standards it’s a huge brain, but by vertebrate standards, it’s a small brain. What's interesting about the octopus is about one third of the neurons (nerve cells) are in the brain. They have a huge neural representation in the arms, and there's a ganglion controlling every sucker, so there's quite a bit of local control. As humans, we're very proud of having a pincer grasp—the thumb and forefinger—and we say that's responsible for our ability to manipulate the environment so well. The octopus can fold the two sides of its sucker together to form a pincer grasp and it can do that with every single one. It has a hundred pincer grasps.
Why do you think octopuses evolved such big brains?
Probably because the tropical coral reef is the most complex environment in the world. There's such a huge variety of situations, lots of kinds of prey, lots of predators, and if you are not armored, you'd better be smart. The octopus has gone the smart route. Also, we talk about mammalian intelligence evolving in social situations, but clearly the octopus, a solitary organism, has evolved intelligence to solve ecological problems.
Do octopuses often cause trouble in aquariums?
They are very strong, and it is practically impossible to keep an octopus in a tank unless you are very lucky. One of the early researchers said if you leave a floating thermometer in a tank, it will last about five minutes. Octopuses simply take things apart. I recall reading about someone who had built a robot submarine to putter around in a large aquarium tank. The octopus got a hold of it and took it apart piece by piece. There's a famous story from the Brighton Aquarium in England 100 years ago that an octopus there got out of its tank at night when no one was watching, went to the tank next door and ate one of the lumpfish and went back to his own tank and was sitting there the next morning. The aquarium lost several lumpfish before they figured out who was responsible.
Original story at:
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=are-octopuses-smart
Unfortunately, the scientists studying autistic children do not seem to have the same level of intelligence or attention to details as the ones studying octopuses. Could it be that their idea that "all humans are one and the same" blocks their mental abilities? Or is it just that their intelligence passes first through their bank account and social status?
More research is needed to establish which correlation is affecting scientists from seeing the intelligence behind the autistic child's repetitive behaviour!
Are octopuses smart?
The mischievous mollusk that flooded a Santa Monica aquarium is not the first MENSA-worthy octopus
By Brendan Borrell
On Thursday morning, workers filing into the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium in California were surprised to find 200 gallons (750 liters) of seawater soaking into their spanking new, ecologically sensitive flooring. It turns out that a curious two-spotted octopus had disassembled a water recycling valve and directed a tube to spew out of the tank for about 10 hours, according to the Los Angeles Times.
"It found something loose and just pulled on it," the aquarium's education manager Tara Treiber told the Times. "They are very smart creatures."
Octopuses, some 300 species of which inhabit tropical waters around the world, can change colors, squirt out poison, and exert a force greater than their own body weight. But calling the eight-armed cousin of your garden snail "smart" seems a bit of a stretch. In fact, the animals are part of an elite group of slimy mollusks known as cephalopods that range from giant squid to the shelled nautilus and all have remarkably large "brains"—at least for creatures sans backbones.
Scientists have found that octopuses can navigate their way through mazes, solve problems quickly and remember those solutions, at least for the short term. To find out more about octopus intelligence, we spoke to Jennifer Mather, a comparative psychologist at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada. Mather has been studying octopuses for 35 years in an effort to gain insight into the evolution of intelligence. While most scientists hold octopuses in high regard, it's worth noting that not everyone shares Mather's lofty assessment of their intellectual abilities and personalities.[An edited transcript of the interview follows.]
Are octopuses smart?
Yes, but of course one has to ask what that means. I would say intelligence means learning information and using the information that you've learned.
So, how do you know they are smart?
We observed how octopuses figure out how to open clams and what sort of flexibility and variety they have. We give them clams and mussels in order to figure out which they like best. They are very strong, but we found they prefer mussels because mussels are easier to open. They switched to clams when we put the clams on a half shell. They clearly made a decision to go with what was easiest. We noticed along the way that yanking them open wasn't the only thing the octopuses could do to open them.
They have a cartilaginous beak, which looks a lot like a parrot's beak, and they could chip at the edge of the clamshell and then they could inject poison and weaken the clam. Or they actually have a salivary papilla, and they can drill a hole to inject the toxin that way in the stronger clams. They were selective about what technique they would use with what species. We decided we would cheat on them: We took one of the easier ones and wired them shut. They switched techniques according to what would work best. Of course, this doesn't sound hard to you because you're a human, but most simple animals keep trying the same technique.
What other indications are there that octopuses are intelligent?
Octopuses play, and play is something that intelligent animals do. At the Seattle Aquarium, my colleague Roland Anderson and I figured out a situation in which they might play: a boring situation. We gave them an empty tank and a floating pill bottle and waited to see what would happen. Nothing happened the first time, but, after the fourth time, a couple animals did something we call "play."
The octopus blew a jet of water at the pill bottle and that caused it to go over a water jet in the tank and come back to the octopus. These two individual animals did it in a sequence over 20 times. That's just exactly the kind of thing we do when we bounce a ball. When you bounce a ball, you are not trying to get rid of the ball, you are trying to figure out what you can do with the ball.
My note: When the above happens with an autistic child's play they call it "stereotypical behaviour"!!! How about calling it an intelligent child's play while trying to figure out all one can do with a ball, a ring, a car, a piece of paper, a piece of string, anything and everything... So, tell me now "Are the Scientists studying Autism Smart???" Any ideas? Anyone???
Octopuses also have personalities.
We used the same kind of setup people use when they want to study human personalities. You just ask what do the animals commonly encounter during the day in different situations and look at the variability. We put them in three common situations: alerting (opening the top of the tank), threatening (touching the octopus with a test tube brush) and feeding (the octopus was given a crab to munch). This takes awhile because we tested 33 animals, each for two weeks. We found there are three dimensions and we settled for names: activity, reactivity and avoidance. Avoidance is how shy you are. Activity is if you are very active or passive. And reactivity indicates whether you are very emotional or more blasé. Octopuses can have any mix of those traits. We didn't take it any further, but there's a former graduate student in Australia looking at the extent to which personality affects ecology.
Do octopuses have brains?
The molluscan nervous system has a bunch of paired ganglia (a cluster of nerve cells), which in an animal like a clam or a snail are not very big and are widely distributed through the body. They control different functions and are located in different areas. Well, the cephalopods—that's the octopuses, squids and cuttlefish—they are unique in that all these ganglias have condensed so they form a centralized brain. The other thing that is unique amongst the mollusks is there are two areas of this brain that have developed that are specialized for memory storage. It's not just that the brain is larger and condensed, but they have areas of the brain dedicated to learning. That's the kind of thing we humans have, but it’s a completely different brain. By invertebrate standards it’s a huge brain, but by vertebrate standards, it’s a small brain. What's interesting about the octopus is about one third of the neurons (nerve cells) are in the brain. They have a huge neural representation in the arms, and there's a ganglion controlling every sucker, so there's quite a bit of local control. As humans, we're very proud of having a pincer grasp—the thumb and forefinger—and we say that's responsible for our ability to manipulate the environment so well. The octopus can fold the two sides of its sucker together to form a pincer grasp and it can do that with every single one. It has a hundred pincer grasps.
Why do you think octopuses evolved such big brains?
Probably because the tropical coral reef is the most complex environment in the world. There's such a huge variety of situations, lots of kinds of prey, lots of predators, and if you are not armored, you'd better be smart. The octopus has gone the smart route. Also, we talk about mammalian intelligence evolving in social situations, but clearly the octopus, a solitary organism, has evolved intelligence to solve ecological problems.
Do octopuses often cause trouble in aquariums?
They are very strong, and it is practically impossible to keep an octopus in a tank unless you are very lucky. One of the early researchers said if you leave a floating thermometer in a tank, it will last about five minutes. Octopuses simply take things apart. I recall reading about someone who had built a robot submarine to putter around in a large aquarium tank. The octopus got a hold of it and took it apart piece by piece. There's a famous story from the Brighton Aquarium in England 100 years ago that an octopus there got out of its tank at night when no one was watching, went to the tank next door and ate one of the lumpfish and went back to his own tank and was sitting there the next morning. The aquarium lost several lumpfish before they figured out who was responsible.
Original story at:
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=are-octopuses-smart
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