Inflammation and temperature rise effect increase energy needed to propagate an action potential down an axon. Many anxiolytics also downregulate inhibitory neuronal firing (ie, GABA agonists (alcohol), GABA allosteric agonists (benzodiazpines), etc).
An immune molecule can sometimes influence the social behavior of mice: study
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Re: An immune molecule can sometimes influence the social behavior of mice: study
#32Are mice considered an effective model for autism? My understanding is we still don't know the exact mechanism of action of autism. Heck, there could be many different mechanisms, and we're lumping people with different underlying conditions into a single category because the symptoms line up. So our model of autism is entirely based on behavior. But if the mechanism of action in these mice is different from humans,…
"Although findings in mice do not always translate into human treatments, the study may help to guide the development of strategies that could help..." Pulled right from the article. Studies in mice are simply a way to point in the, hopefully, "right" direction without having to shoot in the dark with human test subjects needlessly.
A mouse model for human autism is contrived at best.
The cynic in me feels that some researchers are running out of ideas. The only experimental apparatus are poor knockout mice.
Arguably an analogy is trying to fix a compiled binary with a hex editor and replacing all your 0x11s with 0x0a. Then claiming the segfault is a good model of how another binary crashes (due to a null pointer exception or whatever really).
Re: An immune molecule can sometimes influence the social behavior of mice: study
#33Autism is characterized by autistic behavior. You cannot separate autistic behavior from an autistic person, it is simply their nature. These "mouse models" are inaccurate, as they're based on behavioral observations in the mice and likening them to human behavior. We don't really know how autism works and why, and we haven't discovered actual autistic mice. In other words, it's mostly extrapolation. Anything can "re…
Having had a child this year, my greatest fear was that it might be profoundly autistic. I can't begin to imagine what it must be like to be stuck with a physiologically-broken child, for life, that is incapable of empathy or love for its parent.
I appreciate that's the sort of thing that happens at the extreme ends of the spectrum and not at all representative of many high-functioning autists, but I don't think it's terrible to have that as a fear.
Re: An immune molecule can sometimes influence the social behavior of mice: study
#34Autism is characterized by autistic behavior. You cannot separate autistic behavior from an autistic person, it is simply their nature. These "mouse models" are inaccurate, as they're based on behavioral observations in the mice and likening them to human behavior. We don't really know how autism works and why, and we haven't discovered actual autistic mice. In other words, it's mostly extrapolation. Anything can "re…
It's weird that it has to be repeated so often on HN, but: Autism is not a superpower. Yes, sometimes mildly autistic people can become genius mathematicians, or whatever, but most of autistic people simply cannot function by themselves, they struggle with everyday things. So no, we can't just "leave them alone", we should try and understand what causes autism, and maybe someday we can cure it.
It's not so black and white.
Most autistic people aren't distinctly "low" or "high" functioning like that. They are otherwise fairly average people with a few traits that make things difficult, and appear "high" or "low" functioning depending on the environment they are subjected to.
Why don't you ask an autistic person if they want to be cured? Go ahead. Jump on r/aspergers and ask them. They will tell you to go fly a kite.
Re: An immune molecule can sometimes influence the social behavior of mice: study
#35Autism is characterized by autistic behavior. You cannot separate autistic behavior from an autistic person, it is simply their nature. These "mouse models" are inaccurate, as they're based on behavioral observations in the mice and likening them to human behavior. We don't really know how autism works and why, and we haven't discovered actual autistic mice. In other words, it's mostly extrapolation. Anything can "re…
> Leave autistic people alone and let them be themselves. Seriously, I can't believe some people would rather let their kid die of polio than believe they could be autistic. If you think having an autistic child is that terrible, you probably shouldn't have kids. That's very much not the case, unfortunately. Many autistic kids are very low function. Their deviations in behavior are way more serious than just some qui…
And is that worse than getting polio?
Re: An immune molecule can sometimes influence the social behavior of mice: study
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Although findings in mice do not always translate into human treatments, the study may help to guide the development of strategies that could help..." Pulled right from the article. Studies in mice are simply a way to point in the, hopefully, "right" direction without having to shoot in the dark with human test subjects needlessly.
A mouse model for human autism is contrived at best. The cynic in me feels that some researchers are running out of ideas. The only experimental apparatus are poor knockout mice. Arguably an analogy is trying to fix a compiled binary with a hex editor and replacing all your 0x11s with 0x0a. Then claiming the segfault is a good model of how another binary crashes (due to a null pointer exception or whatever really).
Oh my shit, they don't claim to have an answer. They have a direction. Not an answer. There's a very large difference. The entire language in this is extremely aware and careful that they don't have a cure. Quit acting like this is a CNN article saying "Scientists cured all disease because of a 2 person study". They have some survey based evidence that it happens in humans too. With a potential replication in mice, they feel confident it's an avenue worth pursuing. No one is holding their breath. It's an interesting study, with interesting line of evidence thought that they think is worth seeing if completely true. That's it, don't make it out to more than that. They share this information so other people can be enlightened to the idea and with professionals who are actually apart of the field help poke actual holes in the issues or offer other ideas to help guide it further. Not just "Ugh, you used mice, like, it's totally not gonna work man because it's like this one programming bug I once had."
Re: An immune molecule can sometimes influence the social behavior of mice: study
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
They are not preventing the infection itself, they are allowing your immune system to kill the infection before it develops into the full blown disease. (No it is not funny, because people and children dying because of this bullshit)
I thought vaccines just contained antigens which are essentially just the receptors; i.e. it's impossible to actually get sick from a vaccine since the actual bacteria/virus is missing. IANAB though, I'm sure there are many kinds of vaccines prepared using many different methods. Also, I thought the joke was funny; I highly doubt there are any genuine anti-vaxxers in HN comments.
It depends on the type, some (not quite a small number) of vaccines contain an attenuated version of the virus. Some are available in multiple forms, like Salk and Sabin polio vaccines.
However, the risk of getting sick from the vaccine is small compared to the risk of getting sick without the vaccine. When the risk levels get close to equal, the vaccine type is changed to the less-risky but less-effective type.
Attenuated virus vaccines are usually more effective than inactive virus ones.
Re: An immune molecule can sometimes influence the social behavior of mice: study
#38Autism is characterized by autistic behavior. You cannot separate autistic behavior from an autistic person, it is simply their nature. These "mouse models" are inaccurate, as they're based on behavioral observations in the mice and likening them to human behavior. We don't really know how autism works and why, and we haven't discovered actual autistic mice. In other words, it's mostly extrapolation. Anything can "re…
Having had a child this year, my greatest fear was that it might be profoundly autistic. I can't begin to imagine what it must be like to be stuck with a physiologically-broken child, for life, that is incapable of empathy or love for its parent. I appreciate that's the sort of thing that happens at the extreme ends of the spectrum and not at all representative of many high-functioning autists, but I don't think it's…
(I'm a parent of a kid on the spectrum)
While the fear is natural, there are tons of other childhood conditions that are, in fact, worse than autism.
Would you decline vaccines for yourself or your child because you fear they might "get autism" (which has been debunked).
Edit: clarity
Re: An immune molecule can sometimes influence the social behavior of mice: study
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's weird that it has to be repeated so often on HN, but: Autism is not a superpower. Yes, sometimes mildly autistic people can become genius mathematicians, or whatever, but most of autistic people simply cannot function by themselves, they struggle with everyday things. So no, we can't just "leave them alone", we should try and understand what causes autism, and maybe someday we can cure it.
It's not so black and white. Most autistic people aren't distinctly "low" or "high" functioning like that. They are otherwise fairly average people with a few traits that make things difficult, and appear "high" or "low" functioning depending on the environment they are subjected to. Why don't you ask an autistic person if they want to be cured? Go ahead. Jump on r/aspergers and ask them. They will tell you to go fly…
It's possible that people so invested in the identity of having Aspergers that they hang out on /aspergers would tell you to fly a kite. That's hardly a representative sample of people with the condition. Most are probably living their lives and not hanging out on /aspergers.
Re: An immune molecule can sometimes influence the social behavior of mice: study
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
Having had a child this year, my greatest fear was that it might be profoundly autistic. I can't begin to imagine what it must be like to be stuck with a physiologically-broken child, for life, that is incapable of empathy or love for its parent. I appreciate that's the sort of thing that happens at the extreme ends of the spectrum and not at all representative of many high-functioning autists, but I don't think it's…
(I'm a parent of a kid on the spectrum) While the fear is natural, there are tons of other childhood conditions that are, in fact, worse than autism. Would you decline vaccines for yourself or your child because you fear they might "get autism" (which has been debunked). Edit: clarity
No, because vaccines don't cause your child to "get autism"