Autism: 8 things you didn't know about this disorder

Almost the 1% of the child population suffers from autism. Autism impairs a person's ability to communicate and engage in social interactions, and is identified by the presence of repetitive behaviors.

8 curiosities and things you did not know about Autism

In this article we will review a total of eight discoveries about this disorder.

1. Geniuses with autism

Outstanding thinkers, scientists, and musicians such as Isaac Newton, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig Beethoven, Inmanuel Kant and Albert Einstein have been studied by Michael Fitzgerald, psychiatrist british Trinity College Dublin, who concluded that all of them suffered from some degree of autism.

2. Skull larger than average

Those affected by autism segregate higher hormone levels involved in physical growth, such as insulin-like type 1 and type 2 growth factors, compared to people who do not have this disorder.

This peculiarity could explain why the head circumference of autistic people is greater, as a recent research by Cincinatti University published in Clinical Endocrinology.

3. Indifference to the opinion of others

An investigation of the California Institute of Technology points out that a people with autism feel a total indifference about what others think or think of them. To reach this conclusion, the researchers contrasted the conduct of financial donations for the NGO UNICEF.

It was compared with two different situations: the first when the donor made the donation without any company, and the second when he was observed by another (or other) subjects. Participants without autism donated larger amounts when another person was present, since the amount contributed was perceived as an indicator of their social reputation before others. For people with autism, the amounts contributed did not differ depending on the situation. The results were published in the journal PNAS.

4. Process information more efficiently

People with autism have a superior ability to process information compared to the general population, a fact that could reveal the surprising percentage of autistic people whose work occupation is in the high technology sector, according to diverse investigations carried out in the United Kingdom maintain.

In addition to this better information processing, they are also more adept at discriminating fundamental information from that which is not. The study was published in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology.

5. The morphology of the autistic face

The face of children with autism has some characteristics of its own, as pointed out by recent research published in the magazine Molecular Autism.

Their mouths and eyes are slightly wider than average., greater proportion of the forehead and the middle area of ​​the face (cheeks and nose) subtly smaller.

6. Premature babies

Low birth weight and premature newborns have a chance of 500% of developing autistic disorder than those who are born at nine months and with average weight, as indicated by a study published in Pediatrics that collected data for more than twenty years.

7. Evolutionarily positive

Some genes that influence the development of autism could have had evolutionary efficacy in our ancestors, since provided greater capabilities in visual and spatial intelligence, concentration and memory, skills that allowed greater efficiency in hunter and gatherer individuals.

8. Mirror neurons

Those affected by autism have a greater predisposition to suffer problems in their social relationships, as they have limitations in their ability to show empathy in human interactions. A study that came to light in the magazine Biological Psychiatry revealed that this condition is due to alterations in the system of mirror neurons (those neurons that enable us to understand and anticipate the claims and reactions of other people), which develop much more slowly than in people without autism.

Bonus: Guinea pigs can help people with Autism

Several scientific investigations have reported that people with an autism spectrum disorder benefit from the company of this little rodent.

You can check it by reading this article:

• "Guinea pigs have a positive effect on young people with Autism"