Various Autism pointers
– Discover has an article about environmental stress (diet, toxins), inflammation and Autism.
– A University of Nottingham study described on the Biosingularity blog shows that autistic children are actually very good at inferring mental states by looking at eyes. This study uses moving images and overturns previous studies where static images were used. I personally find expressions quite readable, yet I used to block them out because the associated emotional charge is anxiety provoking.
– IEET links to an article by Michael L. Ganz that attempts to quantify the cost of autism to society. However, this makes me wonder if the cost is overwhelmingly offset by the contribution of people with Asperger’s syndrome to science and technology. Asperger’s is thought to be a form of high-functioning autism.