My friend Ariane has written a post about her reaction to being attacked by someone who didn’t agree with her writing. If you know Ariane or have benefited from reading her blog, please go there and place a supporting comment. I did. I think we all know how traumatizing it is to be criticized in …
Category: Autism
Dec 22
Shifting the Stigma is Not Okay
In the wake of the Sandy Hook tragedy, a wave of articles has appeared that have protested the almost immediate linking of the perpetrator with autism. As I write this, it has been informally confirmed that he did have such a diagnosis, but not whether he had been taking psychotropic medication at the time of …
Dec 02
Neurobabble and All That
Neuroeverything After reading a couple of articles recommended by friends, I am going to have to rethink how I describe my reading habits. I have been saying I devour pop-science books on neuroscience. (Of course, I do read a lot of other things, too, on evolutionary biology, philosophy, ethics, autism, and more.) But it seems …
Oct 30
A Special Autism-Friendly Screening of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
A Special Autism-Friendly Screening London’s National Theatre in HD The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Saturday, November 3 at 2pm http://www.mahaiwe.org/events.html Recommended for ages 13 and up $10 Reserved Seating Here’s a nice article in the Berkshire Eagle about the performance, and my involvement in it. I will be leading the post-screening …
Sep 29
Health Warning: Don’t Swallow Churnalism Whole!
This post is a commentary inspired by a brilliant essay by Emily Willingham. Brilliant in the British sense. Well, in the American sense, too, actually. In fact, all her essays are brilliant it’s just that this one caught my eye a couple of weeks ago because of something that was in the news, and I’ve reread it several times …
Aug 19
More on the Mystery of Executive Function
Those of us who are neuroexceptional are known to have difficulty with many of the cognitive processes that fall under the general rubric of “executive functions.” Why is that? If I knew that answer to that, there would probably be a Nobel Prize waiting for me. Still, I have given this a lot of thought. …
Jul 05
On Beyond Brain Plasticity
What is the Basis of Our Emotional Style? Is it a birthright, based on our genetic inheritance, or is it something we develop as we age? The answer, perhaps not surprisingly, is “both.” In recent years, the old debate over nature versus nurture has taken a new twist. It was once thought (not that long ago) …
Jun 30
Is There An Autistic Personality? Part II
In which I continue my unscientific search for common features of the autistic personality. In Part I of this series, I noted several discordances between autistic characteristics, as I see them, and standard personality types. I believe these will prove to be the keys to understanding (hey, wait, don’t keys “unlock”? – add that to the …
Jun 28
Recent Autism Research: A Synopsis
Current Research Implications for the Asperger Community A Conference Co-Sponsored by Asperger’s Association of New England (AANE), Northeastern University, and YouthCare Held at Northeastern University on March 16, 2012 One Person’s Observations and Reactions ©2012 Michael Forbes Wilcox This post is a lightly-edited version of an article that appeared in Issue 10 of the AANE Journal: Spring 2012 NB: the writer has no formal training in …
Jun 25
Is There An Autistic Personality?
Autism is a different way of being in the world, and that difference arises in the brain. The neuronal networks of an autistic brain are somehow different from those of a typical brain. We know quite a bit about many of these differences, although it is not always clear what is the relationship between differences …