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Identical twins both grew up with autism, but took different paths

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Re: Identical twins both grew up with autism, but took different paths

#62
post #60

Have they actually sequenced their genes and compared them? If there is a genetic explanation, then any mutations or replication errors during pregnancy would end up screaming into your face once you do the comparison.

They divided from the same oocyte, they have identical genomes.

Not strictly true. Mutations happen and when they happen early, they can affect a large percentage of the cells in the body.

Re: Identical twins both grew up with autism, but took different paths

#63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"very far" is of course relative: if we have tree vectors, two of length R and one of length 0.99*R, it's not outlandish to call the distance 2R between the two vectors of equal magnitude "very large" compared to the distance 0.01R between two vectors of dissimilar magnitude. Your last comment is completely incorrect, for a point at (1,1,1,....) each extra dimension adds a constant 1 to the euclidean distance, so tha…

> Your last comment is completely incorrect How so? Your followup makes no sense. > for a point at (1,1,1,....) each extra dimension adds a constant 1 to the euclidean distance, so that in 500 dimensions a point at (1,1,1,....) is around 22.4 units away from the origin, while in two dimensions it is only 1.4 units away from the origin. You're comparing vectors of different magnitudes. You could equally object that (2…

Consider simple two-dimensional space. A point at (1,0) is 1 unit away from the origin, as is a point at (0,1). But a point at (1,1) is approximately 1.4 away from the origin, i.e. sqrt(1^2 + 1^2). See Pythagorean theorem.

Re: Identical twins both grew up with autism, but took different paths

#64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Your last comment is completely incorrect How so? Your followup makes no sense. > for a point at (1,1,1,....) each extra dimension adds a constant 1 to the euclidean distance, so that in 500 dimensions a point at (1,1,1,....) is around 22.4 units away from the origin, while in two dimensions it is only 1.4 units away from the origin. You're comparing vectors of different magnitudes. You could equally object that (2…

Consider simple two-dimensional space. A point at (1,0) is 1 unit away from the origin, as is a point at (0,1). But a point at (1,1) is approximately 1.4 away from the origin, i.e. sqrt(1^2 + 1^2). See Pythagorean theorem.

Yes, what's your point? Vectors with larger magnitudes have larger magnitudes than vectors with smaller magnitudes do?

If you're going to defend the idea that something I said was incorrect, maybe you should have some idea of what it was?

Re: Identical twins both grew up with autism, but took different paths

#65
post #18
post #2

> identical twins at opposite ends of the autism spectrum. I understand this is just a figure of speech, but this wording suggests that there are "two ends" of the spectrum and (as I understand it) autistic communities are trying to fight that myth.

I mean... that's literally the definition of "spectrum" From a few random dictionaries: >2. used to classify something, or suggest that it can be classified, in terms of its position on a scale between two extreme or opposite points. >a range of different positions, opinions, etc. between two extreme points ?????

If you tried to quantify different people's experience of autism you could maybe compare people by the amplitude of their symptoms (say a maximum or average), but you'd get a much better idea of the range of experiences with something like a Fourier transform. Imagine different symptoms are different wavelengths of light. Different people experience certain elements of the constellation of symptoms that we can "autism" to different degrees. And the goal is not really to get anyone to be "less autistic", but to help them live in society (or to build a society that allows them to better join in).

Re: Identical twins both grew up with autism, but took different paths

#66

This is driving me oddly nuts: > "I think there's an understanding that 'My twin isn't quite as capable of communicating in the way that they need to, so I'll help them with that,'" she says. > That description fits Sam and John. > When asked to name his favorite episode of Sesame Street, John blurts out a series of words: "Abby makes the seasons change." Sam understands immediately and quickly steps in to explain. >…

> I know that episode. It's actually called "Abby Makes Season Change", [1] so that "series of words" is the direct answer to the question. The point is probably true in general, but the example sucks. Are the episode names of Sesame Street displayed in the episode?

Not sure, but they're displayed in the episode gallery/chooser/menu in the PBS Kids app that a lot of people use to watch them.

Re: Identical twins both grew up with autism, but took different paths

#67

This is driving me oddly nuts: > "I think there's an understanding that 'My twin isn't quite as capable of communicating in the way that they need to, so I'll help them with that,'" she says. > That description fits Sam and John. > When asked to name his favorite episode of Sesame Street, John blurts out a series of words: "Abby makes the seasons change." Sam understands immediately and quickly steps in to explain. >…

My daughter and I happen to have just watched this episode, and after reading the article I came back to make this exact same comment. You beat me to it!

It's unintentionally a really great example of failure to communicate caused by assumptions one makes about the person one's talking to.

Re: Identical twins both grew up with autism, but took different paths

#68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Consider simple two-dimensional space. A point at (1,0) is 1 unit away from the origin, as is a point at (0,1). But a point at (1,1) is approximately 1.4 away from the origin, i.e. sqrt(1^2 + 1^2). See Pythagorean theorem.

Yes, what's your point? Vectors with larger magnitudes have larger magnitudes than vectors with smaller magnitudes do? If you're going to defend the idea that something I said was incorrect, maybe you should have some idea of what it was?

You keep referring to the magnitude of the vector itself rather than the magnitude of its components.

> Vectors with larger magnitudes have larger magnitudes than vectors with smaller magnitudes do?

Vectors with more dimensions have larger magnitudes than vectors with fewer components, for the same average magnitude of the components. The distance between the origin and (1,1) is less than the distance between the origin and (1,1,1) even though the components in both cases all have magnitude 1.

Re: Identical twins both grew up with autism, but took different paths

#69
post #4

This seems to bolster the theory that autism is modulated by the gut-brain axis. Being given antibiotics at such an early age will probably severely dysregulation gut microbiota. And GABA actually does cross the BBB but in small amounts. Perhaps at such an early age, dysregulation in GABA produced in the gut has significant effects on brain health - over stimulation, learning memory issues, etc.

[flagged]

Re: Identical twins both grew up with autism, but took different paths

#70
post #39

It's so interesting to see the differences in their faces. I can tell from the folds and wrinkles on Sam's face that he engages in more neurotypical communication.

Autistic individuals often have differences in muscle tone and hypermobile joints
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