I just listened to a 20-minute radio segment that reduced me to tears. Alan Turing was a hero of mine long before I knew anything about autism. Once I discovered my own autism and began to be able to see signs of autism in people I knew, either personally or from reading about them, I …
Category: Autism
Aug 01
Brain Fitness, Alzheimer’s, and Autism
An amusing and informative essay on the brain appeared in a recent (July 29) issue of The New Yorker. Entitled “Mentally Fit: Workouts at the brain gym” by Patricia Marx, the article chronicles her investigation of the “brain fitness” industry. The article is partly behind a paywall, so if you’re not a subscriber you can …
Jul 30
The Art of Staying Focused
In a recent (June 2013) short and informative interview published in The Atlantic, James Fallows (JF) asks Linda Stone (LS) to explain what she means by such phrases as “continuous partial attention” and “attention strategy.” Many of us who are autistic have given much thought to the concepts outlined in the interview. For me, it …
Jul 24
Slides from a Workshop on Neuroexceptional Couples
Eva Mendes and I led a workshop at AANE’s Annual Conference for Adults. The theme of the Conference was Advocacy, and the keynote address was a 2-hour tour de force by our beloved Ari Ne’eman of the Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN). Our workshop was focused on relationships. Any relationship (romantic or otherwise) is a …
Jul 17
Autism Acceptance: My Thoughts Captured in an Interview
Paula Durbin-Westby has been publishing a series of interviews with autistic people on the subject of Acceptance. Mine is the latest one that she has posted on her Autism Acceptance Day blog. Please take a look and tell me what you think. Also, poke around her site for many useful links and lots of good …
Jul 02
Caveat Emptor: TMS as Snake Oil
On the eve of my next visit to the TMS Lab at Beth Israel in Boston*, I came upon this blog post: TRANSCRANIAL MAGNETIC STIMULATION FOR AUTISM I’ve added a comment to that post, so won’t repeat myself here, but I did want to point out the very valid caveats they list. They talk …
May 22
My Testimony to the Massachusetts General Court’s Joint Committee on Children, Families and Persons with Disabilities on May 21, 2013
Testimony of Michael F. Wilcox 217 East Road Alford Massachusetts 01266 mfw@mfw.us 21 May 2013 to the Committee on Children, Families and Disabilities House Bill 78 An Act to permit the Department of Developmental Services to provide services to adults with developmental disabilities My sincere thanks to the Committee for holding a hearing on this critically …
May 20
DSM-5 Published to a Chorus of Criticism
The long-anticipated revision to the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) has been published. Although the exact wording of many sections of the book had not been widely known pre-publication, the essential features of its changes have been known for some time now. And the drumbeat of criticism has been constant. …
Apr 29
It’s Time to Stop Pouring Research Money Down the Genetic Sinkhole
The Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN) and others have protested the disproportionate amount of money that is spent on “basic” research (i.e. trying to understand the underlying neurobiology of autism) versus how much is spent on “pragmatic” research (learning how to make effective services available to improve the quality of life for autistic people). In …
Apr 17
Okay, I’m Superman
It pains me to write these comments, critical of one of my favorite neuroscience writers, but it must be done. V.S. Ramachandran has just published an online article that has taken an enormous amount of flak on Twitter, some of that from me. Also, the very first comment to the article cites a study that …